Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
St. Paul warned the Thessalonians about those who are “disorderly” and reminded them that he had never been “disorderly” among them (2 Thessalonians 3:6-7). The Greek word that St. Paul used for “disorderly” was ἀτάκτως (ataktōs). This Greek word (with an alpha privative) means something like “untactical.” It refers to those who lack military order and discipline, who fall out of the line of the battle formation, who may be suited for a disorderly mob of undisciplined ruffians, but not for a real army.
In a real army, each soldier must know his duty and be ready and willing to perform it. He must be ready, in the moil of battle, to take on extreme challenges and even to accept unforeseen burdens. Such soldiers benefit the whole army. The lazy and undisciplined “soldier,” on the other hand, because he is untactical and out of order, puts his own life and the lives of his comrades in jeopardy. The army must direct additional resources either to correct him or to do his duty for him. He doesn’t “carry his own weight,” so to speak, and he weighs the army down.
St. Paul was someone who benefited the whole Christian army by carrying his own weight. He is a model for us of good Christian order and discipline. The weight that he carried is the weight that every Christian must carry: the weight of his own cross. “Take up your cross and follow me,” the Savior said. To carry such a weight, hard as it may seem, can be done with Christ’s help. Doing so contributes in orderly fashion to Christ’s mission: the salvation of the world.