Unus pro omnibus
You may not speak or read Latin on a daily basis, but there is something vaguely familiar about the phrase “Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno”. You can’t quite place it but it is right there, on the tip of your tongue…well unless you chose a Snickers or a Milky Way bar instead. Of course! It is that famous line from the novel “The Three Musketeers” written by Alexandre Dumas. “One for all, and All for one!” might actually be one of the most overused phrases in contemporary team-building literature.
However, I am going to dispute the Wikipedia claim that this phrase originated in Switzerland as their unofficial motto after severe Alpine flooding in 1868. While that event (and others we may have experienced) truly demonstrated the unifying capabilities of humankind, I believe it dates back, at least conceptually, another 1,830-plus years.
Acts 4:32-34 “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had….There were no needy persons among them.”
Personally, I have a similar feeling about my congregational family at St. Andrew. They are like a life-vest while boating or maybe more accurately like the airbag in my car. I don’t have to see it to know it is there, ready and willing to save my life if the bottom completely fell out from under me. I don’t plan on this happening, nobody does. But many of us have struggled from time to time. Our prayer list is never empty. Yet we hesitate to ask for the help we may need. We don’t want to burden others.
As this season of Easter unfolds, I am acutely aware of the way in which Jesus Christ was the real origin of “One…for all”, and how it is our response as Christians to live as “all…for One”. He suffered and died as the ultimate atonement for our sins, yet is raised and lives within each of us to praise God through our actions. Most of the time we feel we are part of the “all”, ready and willing to serve when asked. But sometimes we are the “one” in need. Yet, it is through the ebb and flow of this symbiotic relationship that we truly experience God’s presence.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
David Krueger