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Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr Philemon 7–20
Paul writes a very short letter to a Christian man named Philemon.
Paul is old and in prison.
And he is asking for mercy.
Not for himself, but for Onesimus, a runaway slave.
In the Roman world, this was a serious matter.
A runaway slave could be punished severely.
He could be treated as a criminal.
He could even be killed.
We do not know why Onesimus ran away.
But we know where he went.
He went to Paul.
And through Paul, he met Christ.
Now Paul sends him back to Philemon.
But he does not send him back as before.
Paul says:
Receive him “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother.”
This is the center of the letter:
A slave in the eyes of the law should become a beloved brother in the eyes of his Christian owner.
What does it mean?
The abolition of slavery should have happened long ago.
Now, we can easily say that
the Gospel does not allow us to look at another person as property, as a tool, as a problem, or as someone beneath us.
We beautifully preach that
in Christ, the other person is a brother, a sister, a child of God.
But it took us eighteen centuries to come to this realization.
And part of the problem was the Church, which, instead of taking this short letter seriously, took it for granted.
It is not without reason that Pope Leo XIV, in his first encyclical letter, Magnifica Humanitas — On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence — apologizes for the Church’s role in maintaining slavery.
Paul appeals to Philemon’s heart.
He says, in effect:
You are a Christian.
You know Christ.
Now receive Onesimus as Christ receives you.
Paul also stands between the strong and the vulnerable.
Philemon has power.
Onesimus has none.
So Paul speaks for the one who cannot safely speak for himself.
He even says:
If he owes you anything, charge it to me.
That is Christian advocacy.
Not noise.
Not ideology.
Not empty words.
But standing beside someone at a real cost.
This letter is small, but its message is powerful.
Faith must change relationships.
If we pray together, receive the same Gospel, and belong to the same Lord, we cannot continue treating people according to old categories.
Master and slave.
Important and unimportant.
Useful and useless.
Superior and inferior.
The Gospel breaks these names.
It gives a new name:
brother.
Sister.
Today, slavery has not disappeared.
It has changed forms.
Human trafficking.
Forced labor.
Debt bondage.
Exploitation.
People used for profit, pleasure, or convenience.
But slavery-like attitudes can also enter ordinary life.
Whenever a person is treated only as a function, a worker, a servant, a burden, or a number, the Gospel is being denied.
Paul asks Philemon to see Onesimus differently.
Christ asks us to do the same.
Who is the Onesimus in my life?
Whom do I see only through their usefulness?
Whose dignity do I forget?
Who needs someone to speak on their behalf?
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Mark
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Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
(Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).