"A threefold chord is not easily broken!" Communion, mission, participation today. (6 July 2025; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20)

A reflection on Luke 10:1-12, 17-20, written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA. 

www.tarsus.ie

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
6 July 2025
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Welcome
Over the past while, there has been a spate of books on how to bring back a sense of energy and vision to the community of faith. Often, such books themselves have energetic, challenging titles. One was called Relaunch and another was called Wake up, Lazarus.

Topic
Broadly speaking, these various analyses point to three signs of life: personal engagement, community belonging and being outward looking in a missionary sense. All three are essential; all three belong together and all three lead to joy.

Steps
First of all, all three are essential. For some time now, we cannot depend on externals such as “society” or culture or even the school network to pass on the faith. Future believers will be people who are personally open to God and have somehow felt drawn to God and have been touched by grace. For such individuals to survive, it will be necessary to discover a community of faith, a real one, to which I personally belong. It is the community which carries the message and it is within the community that I discern and grow. The risk is always some kind of comfortable “holy huddle,” in other words to become inward-looking and self-regarding. But all the analyses show that the faithful community flourishes and is alive only when it is outward looking, welcoming and missionary.

Secondly, all three belong together. There is a remarkable passage in the book of Ecclesiastes, slightly humorous in its expression:

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12)

It is not enough, on its own,  to be individually excited. It is not enough, on its own, to belong to a community of faith. It is not enough, on its own, even to be missionary. Because I am excited, I am part of the community and I am missionary. I am missionary, because I belong to the community and am excited. I belong the community because I am exited and the outward looking. A three-fold cord is not quickly broken. 

Finally, as we heard in the Gospel, mission leads to joy — the joy of being truly myself, the joy of being supported by people of the same vision, the joy of offering the word of life. Joy in this sense is not blind complacency or natural effervescence but rather life in abundance: being fully engaged, fully alive triggers a kind of Gospel joy.  That is why St. Paul says, “rejoice in the Lord always again I say rejoice.” That is why St John says “we are writing these things to you so our joy may be complete.” To be joyful is to be free and only the free are truly joyful. Pope Francis is a good example and Pope Leo is following in his footsteps.

Conclusion
The great desire of the Synod Final Report (2024) is for a recovery of energy, vision and outreach. Summarising towards the end, the report says:

§ 142. The formation of missionary disciples begins with and is rooted in Christian
Initiation. In each person’s journey of faith, there is an encounter with many people, groups and small communities that have helped foster their relationship with the Lord and introduce them in the communion of the Church: parents and family members, godparents, catechists and educators, liturgical leaders and those providing charitable services, Deacons, Priests and the Bishop himself. Sometimes, once the journey of Initiation is over, the bond with the community weakens, and formation becomes neglected. However, becoming missionary disciples of the Lord is not something achieved once and for all. It demands continuous conversion, growing in love “to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13) and being open to the gifts of the Spirit for a living and joyful witness of faith.

And a little further on, we read:

§ 147. Shared synodal formation for all the Baptised constitutes the horizon within which to understand and practise the specific formation required for individual ministries and vocations. For this to happen, it must be implemented as an exchange of gifts between different vocations (communion), in the perspective of a service to be performed (mission) and in a style of involvement and education in differentiated co-responsibility (participation).

In the synodal view, three dimensions are essential: communion, mission, participation, that is, another way of saying personal engagement, community belonging and being outward looking. 

At this moment, as the people of God, we are hoping for radical change, renewed energy, in the challenging context of our day. A great beginning has been made both nationally and internationally. What happens next is up to us all.