Overseers who belong to God

A dictionary from internet brings an important meaning to the word “overseer”: “One who keeps watch over and directs the work of others” (www.answers.com). As a supervisor or a superintendent; “One who keeps watch over and directs the work of others”, we are overseers who belong to God, let´s see if we are fulfilling our mission well.

It´s important to realize that both, Paul and Jesus, were setting out, so they needed people who come along keeping on the work, the mission, and the first feature is: He must tend to himself; because he belongs to God. The second, He must tend to other´s work, because all belong to God. Paul had already told the Ephesians: “all things are under the feet of Christ” (Ef 1,22), thus our Psalm has reason because in Christ every member of the kingdom of the word accepting or not also belongs to God. They are setting out, what do they do now? They need people living according God´s plans, living according their own vocation.

Saint Paul said to the “presbyters of the Church of Ephesus”: “Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the Church of God”. The overseer or the vigilant, need first to watch over himself, for example: he does not sleep well, because he may miss some thing important this mean he is to know well his own mission, I can´t teach what I never learned, I can´t demand someone be what, I´m not… If I belong to God, I can´t belong to laziness, I can´t belong to my whim or even “myself”, I can´t belong to others; some people only pray before their master and don´t pray well during holidays, weekends, vacations, leisure, I can´t wear a mask, but I must “watch over the whole flock” said Paul, why? Because the others also belong to God, and what God wants is that we can understand that we belong to Him and the others also, so Jesus said: “They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world”.

Sons and daughters, we are overseers, and we must keep watching over ourselves and the others, because they and us, all of us: We belong to God. So we can´t wear any mask, but we must be the overseers that our God wants, the overseers who belong to God.
Amen.

Fr. Sóstenes Vieira
Community Canção Nova