The Holy Martyr Hyacinth
Romans 16:1-16; Matthew 13:3-9
Abstinence from meat and foods that contain meat.
Read Romans 16:1-16
Greet Pheobe, Prisca, Aquilla. The list goes on for Paul at the end of the Letter to the Romans. Behind every one of these greetings, Paul issues before he finishes an epistle is a relationship. Prisca and Aquilla, for example, Paul considers “co-workers in Christ Jesus.” If we know anything about Paul’s labours for Christ, this description is no easy task. How many trials Paul endured for the sake of Christ. These people he greets are the people who join, comfort, support, intercede for his labours. In our own communities, do we recognize co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord, or do we simply see them as another warm body occupying the pew next to us? The body of Christ, the Church is built up by our common work. It can be as simple as fundraising, or as serious as suffering together for the faith like the Church of the Underground did in Ukraine for so many years. This is what it means to be a co-worker. This builds the bond. Behind these greetings is not civil pleasantries, but the recognition that these are the people who are engaged in precisely the same apostolic work as Paul. Paul points them out for our benefit and also, perhaps we should search for these kinds of friends in our own life.