Homily for Thursday
11th Week of
Ordinary Time
June 17, 2021
2 Cor 11: 1-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New
Rochelle, N.Y.
“If only you would put up with a little
foolishness from me!” (2 Cor 11: 1).
In several of his letters—Galatians is another example—Paul is compelled to defend his apostleship and the Gospel he preaches. He has always had opponents of his message: Jews who don’t believe in
Christ, pagans who
find the Gospel cuts against their economic interests, and those he calls
“false apostles” who insist that the Greeks must adopt the Law of Moses in
order to become Christians.
That last group
are Paul’s foes in this passage. Against
them, Paul reminds the Corinthians that his preaching among them has been
entirely selfless: giving them over to
Christ as to a spouse, not taking any salary or fee from them, as the Church’s
ministers are entitled to do. Therefore
he merits their trust when he asserts that “the truth of Christ” is in him (11:10).
That truth—the
truth of the Gospel—is at stake when self-appointed apostles, whom he
sneeringly calls “superapostles” (11:5), come “preaching another Jesus than the
one we preached” (11:4).
Variations on the
Gospel have always been a problem for the Church, from Paul’s time thru
medieval heresies and the Protestant Reformation up till today. Today dissenters from Vatican II preach a
different Gospel. So do nominally Catholic
folks who approve of abortion, homosexuality, and women’s ordination.
Paul fears that “as
the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,” the “thoughts [of his Corinthian
friends] may be corrupted from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ”
(11:3). Last week Bp. Robert Barron
forcefully reminded hundreds of Catholic journalist and communicators—as you
can read in Catholic media online or in print—that our primary duty is to preach
Jesus Christ risen from the dead. So
Paul did. Christ’s resurrection is what
validates his teaching and the teaching of his living spouse, the Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment