Word to the Wise
Tuesday, September 2, 2014 - Tuesday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 2:10b-16 and Luke 4:31-37]We have not received the spirit of the word but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. [1 Cor.]
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 TUESDAY IN THE TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
[1 Corinthians 2:10b-16 and Luke 4:31-37]
"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God."
In St. Paul's time, the city of Corinth was known for its wild character, a kind of "anything goes" town. After working there more than a year to get the Christian community started and thriving, Paul had to go elsewhere, but he did not ever lose his interest in this particular community. It seems to have been his favorite in many ways. The passion and determination of his letters to the Corinthians [the second one may have originally been more than one] shows that the new community had to struggle with all kinds of problems, both internal and external. Today's passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians tells the community that the best guide to decision-making is the Spirit of God, received in baptism. This is what gives us "the mind of Christ." It enables us to see life in a way very different from the surrounding secular culture. This was true for the Corinthians, but it is also true for us!
Seminaries offer entire courses on the role of the Holy Spirit [pneumatology]. I can only touch the surface here. My parish missions center on the gift of baptism, which St. Paul says enables us to appreciate the other gifts that God provides. This means a perspective shaped by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we see everything in life in the light of that perspective, the difference between the believer and the secular world becomes clear. A whole new world of values opens up. "Cradle Catholics" sometimes have trouble seeing this because baptism is something that occurred when they were infants. I am thinking about what I have heard from those who go through the experience of the RCIA programs and the impact of the change brought about in their lives. To have the "mind of Christ" seems too exalted, but St. Paul says this is what the Spirit is meant to accomplish. Sometimes, like the Corinthians, we need to be reminded in clear and forceful terms! AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
101 ms
4
