Word to the Wise
Friday, June 14, 2013 - Friday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 4:7-15 and Matt 5:27-32]We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
Anyone who reads the Second Letter to the Corinthians should come away from it realizing that St. Paul was one tough earthen vessel! The various physical trials that he experienced, including beatings and shipwreck, would be more than most people could handle! But he was what we would call a "driven" man. Making known the message of Christ that had been revealed to him became his one passion and he would endure whatever trials this mission would bring!
Yet he says in today's passage that we all have that same "spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed and therefore I spoke...'" That spirit of faith comes to us in baptism and identifies us with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. St. Paul was trying to get the Corinthian community to realize how great this treasure is. But we are now his listeners and his community. The last lines of today's passage say, "Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God." Can we even grasp a bit of that "spirit of faith," so that we can speak as we believe? AMEN