Sunday<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians with commentary from the Navarre Bible Commentary this week…<\/p>\n
(Paul writes…)\u201cChrist did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel\u201d: this is a reminder that preaching is St Paul\u2019s main task, as it is of the other Apostles (cf. Mk 3: 14). This does not imply a belittling of Baptism: in his mandate to the Apostles to go out into the whole world (cf. Mt 28:19-20), our Lord charged them to baptize as well as to preach, and we know that St Paul did administer Baptism. But Baptism\u2014the sacrament of faith\u2014presupposes preaching: \u201cfaith comes from what is heard\u201d (Rom 10:17). St Paul concentrates on preaching, leaving it to others to baptize and gather the fruit\u2014a further sign of his detachment and upright intention.<\/p>\n
In Christian catechesis, evangelization and the sacraments are interdependent. Preaching can help people to receive the sacraments with better dispositions, and it can make them more aware of what the sacraments are; and the graces which the sacraments bring help them to understand the preaching they hear and to be more docile to it.<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0\u00a0 For as many have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ\u2026Alleluia<\/p>\n
Monday
\n1 Corinthians 1:18 – 25<\/p>\n
For the [\u00a0]<\/sup>message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. <\/span> 19\u00a0<\/sup>For it is written:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI will destroy the wisdom of the wise,<\/span><\/span> 20\u00a0<\/sup>Where is<\/i> the wise? Where is<\/i> the scribe? Where is<\/i> the [\u00a0<\/sup>disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? <\/span> 21\u00a0<\/sup>For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. <\/span> 22\u00a0<\/sup>For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; <\/span> 23\u00a0<\/sup>but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a [ ]<\/sup>stumbling block and to the\u00a0]<\/sup>Greeks foolishness, <\/span> 24\u00a0<\/sup>but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. <\/span> 25\u00a0<\/sup>Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 Our Father, Who art in \u00a0Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tuesday Human wisdom ought to be in line with the wisdom of God. But it has gone off course and become \u201cwisdom of the world\u201d, relying only on miracles or on logic; only grace can make a person truly wise: therefore, no Christian can boast of obtaining wisdom by his own efforts (1:18-31). Even St Paul relied only on the wisdom of the Cross (2:1-5).<\/p>\n Divine wisdom, which men are called to have a share in, is the plan of salvation revealed by God and taught by the Holy Spirit (2:6-16); the Corinthians have not yet attained it (3:1-3).<\/p>\n The cross of Christ leads the way to true wisdom and prudence. No one may remain indifferent to it. Some people see the message of the Cross, \u201cthe word of the cross\u201d, as folly: these are on the road to perdition. Others\u2014 those who are on the road to salvation\u2014are discovering that the Cross is \u201cthe power of God\u201d, because it has conquered the devil and sin. The Church has always seen the Cross in this light: \u201cThis is the wood of the cross, on which hung the Saviour of the world\u201d (Roman Missal, Good Friday liturgy).<\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wednesday For the Jews only signs will do\u2014miracles which prove God\u2019s presence (cf. Mt 12:38ff; Lk 11:29); they want to base their faith on things the senses can perceive. For people with this attitude, the cross of Christ is a scandal, that is, a stumbling block, which makes it impossible for them to gain access to divine things, because they have in some way imposed limits as to how God may reveal himself and how he may not.<\/p>\n The Greeks\u2014St Paul is referring to the Rationalists of his time\u2014think that they are the arbiters of truth, and that anything which cannot be proved by logical argument is nonsense. \u201cFor the world, that is, for the prudent of the world, their wisdom turned into blindness; it could not lead them to see God […]. Therefore, since the world had become puffed up by the vanity of its dogmas, the Lord set in place the faith whereby believers would be saved by what seemed unworthy and foolish, so that, all human conjecture being of no avail, only the grace of God might reveal what the human mind cannot take in\u201d (St Leo the Great, Fifth Nativity Sermon).<\/p>\n Christians, whom God has called out from among the Jews and the Gentiles, do attain the wisdom of God, which consists in faith, \u201ca supernatural virtue. By that faith, with the inspiration and help of God\u2019s grace, we believe that what he has revealed is true\u2014not because its intrinsic truth is seen by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God who reveals it, who can neither deceive nor be deceived\u201d (Vatican I, Dei Filius, chap. 3). The same council goes on to teach that faith is in conformity with reason (cf. Rom 12:1) and that, in addition to God\u2019s help, external signs\u2014miracles and prophecies\u2014and rational argument do act as supports of faith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0\u00a0 Create in me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me.\u00a0 Cast me not from thy presence nor take thy Holy Spirit from me.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and by thy governing spirit establish me. 1 Corinthians 26-31<\/p>\n
\nAnd bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nCommentary on 1 Cor. 1 18-<\/p>\n
\nCommentary on 1 Cor. 1 20-<\/p>\n
\nThursday<\/p>\n