Replies

From: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Apostolic Ministry (Continuation)

[18] Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you thinks that he is wise in
this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. [19] For the wisdom
of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craf-
tiness,” [20] and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
[21] So let no one boast of men. For all things are yours, [22] whether Paul or
Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all
are yours; [23] and you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

18-20. As an application of his teaching about true wisdom, St Paul shows Chris-
tians that the worst kind of foolishness is that of thinking one is wise when one in
fact is not. He uses two biblical quotations (Job 5:13; Ps 94:11 ) as a gloss to
prove that an exclusively human approach is always doomed to failure.

Christians, therefore, are wiser the more they identify their desires with the plan
God has for each; that is, the more supernatural their outlook on life is: “We
must learn to acquire the divine measure of things, never losing our supernatural
outlook, and realizing that Jesus makes use also of our weaknesses to reveal his
glory. So, whenever your conscience feels the stirrings of self-love, of weariness,
of discouragement, or the weight of your passions, you must react immediately
and listen to the Master, without letting the sad truth about our lives frighten us,
because as long as we live our personal failings will always be with us” (St. J.
Escriva, “Friends of God”, 194).

21-23. One consequence of the defective wisdom which St Paul spoke about in
the preceding verses is the Corinthians’ desire to seize on one particular teacher.
They have forgotten that all ministers are there to serve the faithful (v. 5). In fact,
the Apostle tells them, it is not only the teachers that are theirs: “all things are
yours.” This clearly emphasizes the great dignity involved in being a Christian:
by being an adoptive son of God, a brother of Jesus Christ, the Christian has a
share in Christ’s lordship over the universe (cf. 1 Cor 15:24-28), and is the mas-
ter of all creation (cf. 2 Cor 6:10), through which he should move with a certain
proprietorial feeling, called as he is to live in the freedom of the glory of the sons
of God (cf. Rom 8:21), a freedom which God has won for him (cf. Gal 4:31). Hu-
man factions and dissensions of the type that have arisen among the Corinthians
show that they have forgotten all this and therefore their sense of vocation has be-
come impoverished. The Christian belongs to Christ alone: he has only one mas-
ter, Christ. “Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth”, St John of the Cross ex-
plains; “mine are the people, the righteous are mine and the Mother of God, and
all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine and all
for me. What, then, do you ask for and seek, my soul? All this is yours, and it is
all for you. Do not despise yourself, do not despise the crumbs that fall from your
Father’s table” (”A Prayer of the Soul Enkindled by Love”).

The Apostle’s words also remind us of the love and respect that man should have
for created things, which God has entrusted to him (cf. Vatican II, “Gaudium Et
Spes”, 37). “The world is not evil,” St. J. Escriva reminds us “for it has come from
God’s hands; it is his creation; Yahweh looked upon it and saw that it was good
(cf. Gen 1:7ff). We ourselves, mankind, make it evil and ugly with our sins and in-
fidelities [...] our age needs to give back to matter and to the most trivial occurren-
ces and situations their noble and original meaning. It needs to restore them to
the service of the Kingdom of God, to spiritualize them, turning them into a means
and an opportunity for a continuous meeting with Jesus Christ [...]. It is understan-
dable that the Apostle should write: ‘all things are yours, you are Christ’s and
Christ is God’s (1 Cor 3:22-23). We have here an ascending movement which the
Holy Spirit, infused in our hearts, wants to call forth from this world, upwards from
the earth to the glory of the Lord” (”Conversations”, 114-115).

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” — St Jerome

Please pray for this ministry and support it via PayPal.

“The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever
in everlasting silence: and in silence the soul has to hear it.
— St John of the Cross

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

For: Thursday, September 6, 2012

22nd Week in Ordinary Time

From: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23

Apostolic Ministry (Continuation)

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.