The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today remind us of the gift of the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding in our relationship with Christ.
Spirit and Creation
The reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians concludes “But we have the mind of Christ.”
* [2:15] The spiritual person…is not subject to judgment: since spiritual persons have been given knowledge of what pertains to God (1 Cor 2:11–12), they share in God’s own capacity to judge. One to whom the mind of the Lord (and of Christ) is revealed (1 Cor 2:16) can be said to share in some sense in God’s exemption from counseling and criticism.1
Psalm 145 praises the greatness and the goodness of God.
* [Psalm 145] A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus frees a man with an unclean spirit.
* [4:34] What have you to do with us?: see note on Jn 2:4. Have you come to destroy us?: the question reflects the current belief that before the day of the Lord control over humanity would be wrested from the evil spirits, evil destroyed, and God’s authority over humanity reestablished. The synoptic gospel tradition presents Jesus carrying out this task.3
Mike Cherney is moved to consider how we know what we know. He likes to think that we establish knowledge through observation and testing. He sees Paul as suggesting a different path to knowledge.
Dear Lord,
Open my heart to the experience of all that the Spirit can bring.
Allow me to know with the gifts of Your wisdom and grace.
Guide my perceptions.
Help me not to judge on the basis of unconscious biases.Grant me an awareness of the occasions where I am called to serve as a support for those who are troubled by demons of all sorts.4
Don Schwager quotes “New creation begins on the Sabbath,” by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"He describes the works of divine healing begun on the sabbath day, to show from the outset that the new creation began where the old creation ceased. He showed us that the Son of God is not under the law but above the law, and that the law will not be destroyed but fulfilled (Matthew 5:17). For the world was not made through the law but by the Word, as we read: 'By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established' (Psalm 33:6). Thus the law is not destroyed but fulfilled, so that the renewal of humankind, already in error, may occur. The apostle too says, 'Stripping yourselves of the old man, put on the new, who was created according to Christ' (Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22,24). He fittingly began on the sabbath, that he may show himself as Creator. He completed the work that he had already begun by weaving together works with works. (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 4.58)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 comments that not only did Paul grasp the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but through his letters he interpreted these events in a way that has become the theological foundation of our faith.
We live in a time when human learning is valued more than ever—and for good reason. God gave us our reason and intellect, and he wants us to use them. But he also wants to build on our natural wisdom with his own wisdom and revelation—and he does that through the Holy Spirit. What does this look like? As you are trying to understand a Scripture passage, you might consult a commentary. But then you could also pray for deeper insight into what the author meant. Or what if you are trying to explain a difficult Church teaching to someone? Learn as much as you can, but also keep asking the Holy Spirit to give you the words to say to that person.6
Friar Jude Winkler explains the difficulty in Corinth with over emphasis of the spiritual over the material. Jesus Incarnation was difficult for the Greek community. Friar Jude reminds us of the theme of the battle against demonic forces in Luke’s Gospel.
Pope Francis is very pleased that the theme chosen by the ecumenical family for the celebration of the 2020 Season of Creation is Jubilee for the Earth, precisely in this year that marks the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day. In the Holy Scriptures, a Jubilee is a sacred time to remember, return, rest, restore, and rejoice.
The Jubilee season calls us to think once again of our fellow human beings, especially the poor and the most vulnerable. We are asked to re-appropriate God’s original and loving plan of creation as a common heritage, a banquet which all of our brothers and sisters share in a spirit of conviviality, not in competitive scramble but in joyful fellowship, supporting and protecting one another. A Jubilee is a time for setting free the oppressed and all those shackled in the fetters of various forms of modern slavery, including trafficking in persons and child labour. We also need once more to listen to the land itself, which Scripture calls adamah, the soil from which man, Adam, was made. Today we hear the voice of creation admonishing us to return to our rightful place in the natural created order – to remember that we are part of this interconnected web of life, not its masters. The disintegration of biodiversity, spiralling climate disasters, and unjust impact of the current pandemic on the poor and vulnerable: all these are a wakeup call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption.7
James Finley studied under Thomas Merton as a young monk in formation. While many have been influenced by Merton’s writings, few have had the opportunity to learn from the mystic himself. Jim reflects on the insights on the True Self and false self that he gleaned from Thomas Merton.
All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered. Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences, for power, honor, knowledge and love, to clothe this false self and construct its nothingness into something objectively real. And I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible to myself and to the world, as if I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface. [2]8
Fr Richard Rohr, OFM, concludes that our false self is how we define ourselves outside of love, relationship, or divine union. After we have spent many years laboriously building this separate self, with all its labels and preoccupations, we are very attached to it. And why wouldn’t we be? It’s what we know and all we know. To move beyond it will always feel like losing or dying. The preoccupations of the false self resonate with the difficult relationship we have with Creation and our need to seek wisdom from the Spirit to restore our connection to all things.
References
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