Homily for 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 15, 2026
1 Cor 2: 6-10
The Fountains, Tuckahoe
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

The School of Athens (Raphael)

“We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away” (1 Cor 2: 6).

In the opening chapters of his 1st Letter to the Christian community at Corinth—a notoriously decadent city—Paul has been contrasting “God’s wisdom” (2:7) with the wisdom of the world, “of this age.”

Philosophy means, literally, “love of wisdom.”  Wisdom is what serious philosophers pursue, seeking what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful.  Corinth is in Greece, and the Greeks were the world’s 1st great philosophers.  We hold in honor Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among others.  Plato strongly influenced St. Augustine, and Aristotle was a starting point for St. Thomas Aquinas.  St. Paul has no argument with such wisdom.  The Church regards philosophy as the handmaid of theology, which is why seminarians study philosophy before they dive into theology.

St. Paul objects to “wisdom” that rests on temporary realities, things that are “passing away,” as he says.  If you watched the Super Bowl, you may have seen a commercial that featured our human desire always to get “more”—more consumer goods, more fun, more money, more power, more esteem—a “more” that can never be satisfied because all possessions, all pleasure, all power, and all glory finally fade away.

Only God lasts, God and our souls.  That commercial pointed to Jesus as the satisfaction for all our longings:  “He gets us.”  St. Paul speaks of wisdom for the mature, wisdom for grown-ups.  He tells us that “God’s wisdom” is “mysterious [and] hidden” (2:7), but it’s revealed to us in Jesus Christ, who, he told us 2 Sundays ago, “became for us wisdom from God” (1:30).

The “wisdom of this age” preaches:  if it feels good, do it; do unto others before they do unto you; grab all the gusto you can; whoever has the biggest car, vacation home, or bank account is the happiest; and the fear of mutually assured destruction from nuclear weapons secures peace.  Catholic presidential candidate, 4-time governor of New York Al Smith once said of his opponents’ policies, “No matter how thin you slice it, it’s still baloney.”

The “wisdom of the rulers of this age” leads them to invade their neighbors, blow up hospitals and houses of worship, imprison advocates of human rights, and arrest 5-year-olds.

The “wisdom of this age” tells us that killing a baby empowers women, that it’s compassionate to kill the sick—New York just legalized assisted suicide—and that you can separate married love from God’s plan for procreation.

The crucifix of Holy Rosary Church,
Port Chester, N.Y.

What is the wisdom for the mature that Paul speaks of?  “Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (2:2), he wrote last week.  He insists that Jesus is Lord (Rom 10:9 and elsewhere)—a profession of faith almost treasonous in the Roman Empire, where the emperor was worshiped as Lord—and by his cross Jesus redeems the world, for the cross leads to resurrection, opening for us new life thru Baptism and membership in his Church.  This is “God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden” but “revealed to us thru the Spirit” (1 Cor 2:10).

Thru the Spirit God knows our hearts.  The Spirit teaches us to pray (cf. Gal 4:6).  Thru the Spirit poured upon us in the Church, God forgives our sins.  All this is wisdom the world and its rulers can’t understand.  It’s the wisdom of our Lord Jesus, the power of God enabling us to live like Jesus as he teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount, live like Jesus in our relationship with his Father and our relationships with one another—relationships built not on seeking “more” but on loving, respecting, and serving one another.