Homily for
Thursday
11th Week in Ordinary
Time
June 19, 2025
2 Cor 11: 1-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence,
N.R.
“If only you would put up with a little
foolishness from me!” (2 Cor 11: 1).
St. Paul (Rembrandt)
Paul lived in Corinth for a year and a half
(Acts 18:11), supporting himself by practicing his tentmaking trade alongside Aquila
and Priscilla, with whom he stayed (18:3).
He knew his converts well and, presumably, had many close friends among
them.
Even so, he finds himself having to defend
his apostolic credentials and his teaching in the face of people who have come
with “a different spirit” and “a different gospel” (2 Cor 11:4). That might have meant people from Jerusalem
who claimed to have greater authority and who demanded observance of the Mosaic
Law as a condition of Christian faith, notwithstanding the ruling of the
Council of Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15). Or it
could have meant that some were denying a future bodily resurrection, a topic
on which Paul expounds at length in 1 Cor 15.
Paul insists on “a sincere and pure
commitment to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3) and on his own apostolic authority: “I’m not in any way inferior to these
‘superapostles’” (11:5).
Maintaining a pure commitment to Christ
ever remains a challenge for our Christian faith, perhaps more so in this age
of the internet and so many self-styled authorities. There are always those who demand a purer
faith, like the Lefevrists, or a self-referential faith, like the foes of Pope
Francis, as well as those who want to adulterate Christianity, e.g., by
eliminating Christ’s divinity—cf. the Unitarians; or make of the resurrection
just a spiritual symbol—cf. John Shelby Spong, the late Episcopal bishop of
Newark[1];
or opt for an “easier” morality by accommodating ourselves to the spirit of the
age (their name is legion).
Paul insists on “the truth of Christ in me”
(11:10), as we must insist on the truth in the sacred Scriptures, in the
constant tradition of the Church (e.g., on sacramental theology and morality),
and in what the Church teaches today with apostolic authority—the authority of
Vatican II and the authority of St. Peter’s successors.
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