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		<td align=right valign=top width=20%><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=+1><p align=right>There Is No Such Thing as a Coincidence.<br><br><small>Lessons from cycle II of the feria, according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>Philemon 7-20.<br>Psalm 146: 7-10.<br>Luke 17: 20-25.</small><br><br>The Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin.*<br><br><small>The Thirty-Second Thursday of Ordinary Time.</small></font><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=-1><p align=right>Return to <a href="index.htm">ByzantineCatholicPriest.com</a>.</font></td>		

		<td align=right valign=top width-80%><font face="Maiandra GD"><p align=justify><img src="onesimus.jpg" align=right hspace=15 vspace=5>9:26 AM 11/13/2014 — We like to say that, with regard to God's Providence, there is no such thing as a coincidence; and, if you ever needed an illustration of that fact, it could easily be found in today's first lesson, which is taken from the Blessed Apostle Paul's letter to Philemon; for, it's truly a remarkable confluence of events that's being described here.  It is the shortest of all Paul's letters—only one small chapter—and the most heart-felt.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Philemon was a Colossian, and he had a slave named Onesimus, who was a runaway.  Onesimus ran away from Philemon, but—and here's where coincidence and Providence collide—he's captured by the Romans and happens to be imprisoned in the very same cell where Paul is being held on a charge of treason, where he is converted and baptized by the Apostle.  The two become great friends, and Paul has a mind to take Onesimus with him to Rome, but the Romans decide that their authority to prosecute the runaway slaves of Jews is sketchy at best, so they release him; and, Paul decides instead to send him back to Philemon as an assistant to his master in spreading the Gospel, and he's sending this letter along with him.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;It's interesting what he does here—and here's another example of how handicapped we are having to read the Scriptures in English when we should really be reading them in Greek—because Onesimus, which is the Latin pronunciation, is a slave name; in Greek it's pronounced <font face="System">Ὀνήσιμον,</font> which is the Greek word for “useful,” so it's a very common and appropriate slave name.  And the irony of the situation is not lost on Paul, who uses his friend's name to make his point: he tells Philemon that he initially thought that Mr. Useful would be useful to him in Rome, but, given the circumstances, he now realizes that Mr. Useful will be even more useful to Philemon in his mission to preach the Gospel to the Colossians.  He imposes on Philemon only one condition: that he cease treating Onesimus as a slave, and welcome him home as a brother and partner in the ministry.  “Do not think of him any longer as a slave”, says the Apostle; “he is something more than a slave, a well loved brother, to me in a special way; much more, then, to thee, now that both nature and Christ make him thy own” (v. 16 Knox); and, he goes on to suggest that, if Philemon has any notion to regard Paul as a brother and partner in the ministry, he must now do the same for Onesimus, who has now become the brother of both of them in the Faith.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;And in an almost lighthearted moment, the Apostle points out another “coincidence” of Divine Providence: he concedes that Onesimus wronged Philemon by running away, but points out that, had he not done so, he and Paul would never have met, depriving the Church of a very “useful” instrument in spreading the Gospel to a whole different class of people.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;We tend to view the events of our lives in very black and white terms: this that happened to me is good; that which happened to me is bad.  We seldom stop to reflect on what twists and turns the Lord is employing to bring us to some realization or resolution by means of some event or person he has injected into our lives.  If we truly believe that it's Providence rather than coincidence that governs the journey of the Christian soul, then we shouldn't be surprised or closed to anything the Lord may throw our way.

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<blockquote><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262><p align=justify>* <small>Mother Cabrini's Memorial is observed exclusively in the United States.  Born in Lombardy, Italy, in 1850, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart with a view to ministering in China, but was encouraged by Pope Leo XIII to labor instead in the United States among Italian immigrants.  There, her community saw unprecedented growth, and she personally established sixty-seven convents.  She died in Chicago on December 22nd, 1917, but her remains were eventually transferred to the community's mother house in New York.  She was beatified by Pius XI, and canonized by Pius XII, the first naturalized American citizen raised to the Altar.</small></blockquote>

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