Word to the Wise
Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - Tuesday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 2:10b-16 and Luke 4:31-37]The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Among men, who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within. Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. 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. [1 Corinthians]
To understand St. Paul's argument about the Spirit in this passage, we have to be aware of the cultural and theological context in which he was preaching. He is addressing himself to the Christian community in a Greek city, and most likely aiming his argument at a particular element in that community that was influenced by the ideas of Plato and the Jewish philosopher, Philo, who adopted Plato's philosophy into Jewish theology. This could give rise to the notion of a spiritual elite, possessing a secret knowledge that made them superior to all other Christians or other people in general. This current of belief is known in Christian history as "gnosticisim." St. Paul rejects the idea of s spiritual elite and tells his audience (and us) that all of us have received the Holy Spirit, which can enable us to see life from the perspective of Christ - the "mind of Christ."
Traces of the influence of gnosticism can appear from time to time in any movement, Christian or otherwise, which claims to have some kind of secret knowledge that entitles a person to behave or interpret things in a way that is superior to others outside the movement. All of us are called to grow in our faith and understanding of Jesus and his teachings. Each of us is called according to our gifts, as St. Paul makes clear elsewhere in First Corinthians, but all of us are called to the gift of love, as the wonderful passage in 1 Corinthians 13 proclaims. This does give us a perspective on life, but the perspective is not secret or esoteric but rather available to anyone who accepts the Spirit of God that is within and pays attention to its promptings.
As I advance into "elderhood," I find myself reflecting on decisions, wise or otherwise, that I made which influenced my life in dramatic ways. Certainly, the decision to abandon my ambitions as an undergrad student to go to law school and instead to enter the Dominican Order is one of those decisions. I still marvel where the idea came from and can only ascribe it to the working of God's Spirit within. In God's good time, that same Spirit prompted me to ask my superiors if I could return to law school after my ordination. I think this kind of reflection can help us to see what St. Paul is getting at when he says that the Spirit scrutinizes everything and enables us to have "the mind of Christ." AMEN