Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 4, 2024 - Wednesday in the 22th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 3:1-9 and Luke 4:38-44]While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you ot of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man? Wherever someone says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely men" What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the who who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. [1 Corinthians]
St. Paul's ministry is generally organized for consideration around his three "missionary journeys." During the second of these journeys he founded the Christian community at Corinth. He put a great deal of effort into it, spending a year and a half among them. He was followed by another Christian missionary named Apollos. But, while on his third journey, he received word that the community was having a lot of difficulties which included factionalism, which he addresses in today's first scripture. Later on in this same letter he addresses other problems that give us a glimpse into the life of a community in the first century A.D..
Every pastor who has spent years in a parish and worked to build up the community experiences the challenge of seeing what happens to that community under his successor(s). And the new pastor experiences the challenge of "living in the shadow" of the previous pastor(s). (I have had both experiences!) Personal loyalties can become an obstacle to growth and lead to factions. The ministry of the gospel can be forgotten when nostalgia takes over. Both pastors and community are human and subject to all the temptations and failures that being human can bring. It is the wise pastor who listens to a broad range of opinions at the beginning of his term of leadership before making any big "changes." It is a wise community that can effectively challenge the pastor with the needs of ministry - God's ministry.
St. Paul would write more than one letter to the Church in Corinth. These letters tell us as much about him and his personality and life as they do about the Corinthian community. But the letters are not ancient history. They are a present challenge to all - pastors and flocks - to recognize that the ministry we exercise is God's and not our personal thing. AMEN