1 Cor 3:1-9
/ Luke 4:38-44
Author Irene Champernowne says that her favorite saying was written out
for her by an old Arab living in a small mountain village in Lebanon. It
reads: "I will set my face to the wind and scatter my seed on
high." Irene says she likes the saying because it reminds her that
God can do great things with the seed we sow. Our job, therefore, is to have
the courage to keep facing the wind and sowing the seed. This is not an easy
task, because we rarely see the results of our efforts. "But even if
we don't," she adds, "other people do and they are
grateful. The seed we sow is our gift to life and God."
****
Many a great physician has said the same as Paul says: I give the
medicine, God cures, Paul says: "I plant, Apollos waters, God makes it
grow". This simple truth has some far-reaching consequences.
1.
How can
there be jealousy and wrangling in the church, when it is not my sermon, my
congregation, my counselling but God's grace
that changes people? How can a parish priest solely take
credit for the church that is built with parishioners’ money, efforts,
projects, bishop’s permission and endorsement using a status and position given
by the church?
2.
We are fellow workers with God, comrades in
the same firm. Our work is important, our fellow-worker, God, needs us. Someone
has to plant, and someone has to water and someone has to weed and we are
all paid for it, according to our share
in the work. The doctor gets paid for what God does. And we take the
credit for it and let it fuel our jealousy.
****
What kind of seed are we sowing in our lives, right now, for life and
God? Paul writes: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered the
plant, but it was God who made the plant grow." 1 Corinthians 3: 6
****
If others were to give an honest opinion of us as Christians, would
they say that we are different from non-Christians? Or would they say that we
are no different from non-Christians, and maybe at times behave in a lesser way
than them! In the 1st reading, St. Paul would not accept that Christians in
Corinth were behaving like non-Christians and even regressing into behaviours
like jealousy and wrangling. They were even dividing themselves into
unspiritual clans with slogans like "I am for Paul" and "I am
for Apollos".
Obviously, they had forgotten the teaching and example of Jesus of
which we saw in the gospel. Jesus loved and cared for the people by teaching
them and healing the sick and He restored the spiritual dimension in the lives
of the people.
In fact, He Himself highlighted how important the spiritual aspect is
when He would go to a lonely place early in the day to pray. People saw how
different Jesus was and what an extraordinary life He lived. They saw the
spiritual dimension in His life and they experienced God's presence in Him.
Jesus showed us how to live life. We cannot live it any lesser.
****
It is not by chance
that the first miracle is in the house and the family of Peter. Peter has to be
made firm in his faith. He has to be the guardian of the faith. His
mother-in-law was staying with Peter. She was a wonderful mother-in-law. The
moment the fever left her, she got up and served them. Luke the physician,
notes she was suffering from a major fever. Medical text books at that time
grouped fevers into major and minor. Jesus rebuked the fever. Just as he had,
the same morning, rebuked the unclean spirit. In his day, people, even the
learned professors of medicine, believed that even diseases were the work of
the demons. Jesus was fully man, a man of that particular time. Jesus was fully
man, not only with a human body, he had a human soul and a human brain. His
unconditional divine power and prerogative are clearly and forcefully revealed
in this word "rebuke". He used this power not only as a sign of his
love for men but in the work of salvation to lead people to accept the faith
and the Church he established. So here Jesus strengthens Peter’s faith b giving
him the prestige among his own family and people and of his own home town.
****
It is not right to attribute to human beings what is clearly the work
of God. The people are God’s field; the missionaries are collaborators of God
in caring for the field. It is an important perspective to maintain. Like
Christ in today’s Gospel, Paul did not want to bask in the light of spiritual
accomplishment. It is normal to recognize the gifts of priests and ministers
who serve. But the parish is not great because of them; nor do they make virtue
more visible. They are collaborators of the Lord (and that is no small matter).
The principal work is God’s, to whose name belong honor and glory.
