Upbuild, Encourage, and Console: On Becoming a More Prophetic Church

I have a personal motto, one that unfortunately I don’t always follow: don’t read the comments! I am referring to the comments that often accompany posts on Facebook, or blogs, or other social media. My reason for avoiding them is to avoid the distress, anger, and even shame that I feel when reading how people nowadays often speak to each other. These feelings are increased tenfold when the people concerned are Catholics. The hatred and condemnation, vitriol and bile that I encounter reminds me of what St. Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians: “But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another” (Gal 5:15). To read some Catholic commentators, one would think that they really wanted other people to go to Hell.

What can be done about this? The previous verse to the one mentioned above gives the simple answer: “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’.” But how can we put this love into practice, specifically in the way that we speak to each other?

No doubt the most famous passage in St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is the one so often read out at weddings, the one about love (cf. 1 Cor 13). Yet this passage is sandwiched between two other passages about the spiritual charisms (cf. 1 Cor 12 & 14). At the beginning of Chapter 14, after he has told us that the greatest of the theological virtues is love, Paul writes, “Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Cor 14:1). He then goes on to say that “he who prophesies speaks to men for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation . . . he who prophesies edifies the Church” (1 Cor 14:3–4). Prophesying is a way to love others.

When we read the word “prophecy,” the first thing that may come to mind is examples of Old Testament prophets such as Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, those people who went around declaiming, “Thus saith the Lord . . .” the people sent by God to warn his people about what will happen to them if they worship false idols and oppress the poor, and how he will restore them if they repent and return to him. Or perhaps we might think of prophets mentioned in the New Testament, like a man called Agabus, who “stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius” (Acts 11:28), thus enabling the Christians who lived in Antioch to send relief to those who lived in Judea.

These people and others like them were true prophets, but I think that if we limit our understanding of prophecy to what such people do, we are missing a much more fundamental meaning. As St. Paul intimates, prophecy is an expression of love, and those who prophesy speak words from the Lord that upbuild, encourage, and console their brothers and sisters in Christ. This is a charism, or spiritual gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit that all Christians are exhorted to “earnestly desire.”

In the first instance, it is God who encourages, upbuilds, and comforts us: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Thes 2:16–17). And, “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus” (Rom 15:5). God is the “Father of mercies” and the “God of all comfort” (2 Cor 1:3). There is also mention in Acts 9:31 of the comfort of the Holy Spirit being given to the Church. We are also told that what is written in the Sacred Scriptures is meant to help us remain steadfast and be encouraged in our hope in Christ (cf. Rom 15:4). It is God and his word of grace which is able to build us up (cf. Acts 20:32).

Upbuilding, encouraging, and consoling are concerns manifested by Paul from his earliest letter, 1 Thessalonians. There he tells the Thessalonian Christians to “encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (5:11), and “comfort one another with these words [about the final resurrection]” (4:18).

Paul tells us that the charisms are given to believers for no other reason than that the Church be built up (cf. 1 Cor 14:12, Eph 4:11–12). Authority is given in the Church for building up (cf. 2 Cor 10:8). Yet these things must be exercised in a love that builds up (cf. 1 Cor 8:1).

Paul speaks very beautifully about encouragement. Encouragement must be in love (cf. Phil 2:1). He encourages like a father (cf. 1 Thes 2:11). He speaks of hearts being encouraged (cf. Eph 6:22, Col 2:2 & 4:8, 1 Thes 5:14). And we can mutually encourage each other with our faith (cf. Rom 1:12).

Consolation is a particular concern of Paul in 2 Corinthians. Because we have been comforted by God, we are able to comfort anyone who is being afflicted (cf. 2 Cor 1:4). If we share in the suffering of Christ, we will also share in his comfort (cf. 2 Cor 1:5) Even if we share in the suffering of those who proclaim the Gospel, we will also share in their comfort (cf. 2 Cor 1:7).

All of us can be inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak such words, and such words need not be prefaced with, “Thus saith the Lord.” So, to what kind of words do I refer? In the first place, we must make sure that no words that tear down, undermine, discourage, or afflict pass our lips. Rather, we are exhorted “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Tit 3:2). Those in authority, or who pastor others, must be especially concerned that they do so. This is not to say that they can never speak words of correction or admonition, but these words must be “the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). So, what can we say?

Here are twelve ideas from St. Paul to get us started.

• Give a blessing to others: “To Timothy my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (2 Tim 1:2).
• Let people know that you are praying for them: “I remember you constantly in my prayers” (2 Tim 1:3).
• Express your affection for them: “For as God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:8).
• Let them know how much joy they give you: “I long night and day to see you, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Tim 1:4).
• Identify and affirm the gifts that others have. Encourage them to use the charisms that God has given them: “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you” (2 Tim 1:6).
• Remind them of their heavenly destiny: “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col 3:2–4).
• Give witness to others about how God has helped and healed you: “Why, we felt we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely on God who raises the dead; he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” (2 Cor 1:9–10).
• Affirm their faith, hope, and love: “We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 1:2–3).
• Let them know how much faith you have in them: “I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you” (2 Cor 7:4).
• If you discover faults in others, treat such people with gentleness, not harshness: “Brethren, if any man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal 6:1).
• Reassure them of your forgiveness: “For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough; so you should rather turn and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So, I beg you to reaffirm your love for him” (2 Cor 2:7–8).
• Even when you need to correct others, let them know even more how much you love them: “For I wrote out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you” (2 Cor 2:4).

What we are desiring is a prophetic gift. So, while we can do all of the above, we also need to develop a prophetic sensitivity and openness to the Holy Spirit, so that we can give the right words at the right time in the right way, saying what is “good, acceptable, and perfect” (Rom 12:2). Let’s earnestly desire and pray for this gift.

(This is a revised version of an article that appeared as “12 Ways to Build Up the Church” in the Catholic Weekly, May 9, 2021, 14–15.)