Father Mike Schmitz

So let's once again kind of start with the letter of St.

Paul to Philemon.

And again, people say Philemon.

I've always heard Philemon.

And so I don't know how to say it.

I'm just going to say Philemon.

So St.

Paul's writing to Philemon, who is someone that Paul had brought into the faith.

Paul had brought Philemon into relationship with Christ, brought him into the church.

And Philemon had a slave named Onesimus.

And Onesimus at one point, we understand he ran away.

As he ran away, he ran to Paul and Paul helped him become a Christian as well.

And so here is St.

Paul's letter to Philemon saying, I'm sending back your slave, your runaway slave.

But hey, FYI, he is now your brother.

And it even says, I would have liked to keep Onesimus here as as my brother, as my fellow coworker.

But there's a justice here.

And the justice is I'm asking you to receive him back, but receive him back not as a slave, but as a brother.

And there's just something just really powerful about this, because again, one of one of the claims that's that's leveled is that people tried to use the scriptures to validate or endorse slavery.

And at the same time, we have what do we have in the scriptures?