Tuesday, September 2, 2014



Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Corinthians 2:10b-16; Luke 4:31-37)

One college man was telling a companion how he was listening to himself recite the Creed at Mass.  He said rather defiantly “Since when do I believe in everything ’seen and unseen’ (these were the days of the former translation)? “I don’t believe in what is unseen.”  He continued, “Since when do I believe in the Holy Spirit? Where is he?  I don’t believe in him.”  Fortunately, the young man was quite drunk and not completely responsible for the blasphemy.  However that may be, his words belie the Spirit of God to whom St. Paul witnesses in the first reading today.

Paul tells the Christians of Corinth that the rebirth in hope that they have experienced is nothing natural.  Rather it comes from God’s very Holy Spirit.  It is not an illusion because it raised Christ from the dead. Indeed, it will bring about their resurrection when Christ returns in glory.  For now the Spirit brings the community together in love despite differences of age, gender, temperament and national origin.

We find the same Spirit at work today.  It enables us to see the world in a different light.  We are not here to show off our talents so that we might be given a fleeting experience of adulation.  No, the Spirit enables us to serve others in humility that we might enjoy God’s eternal wonder.