Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
(II Corinthians 1:1-11; Matthew 6:7-15)
A woman writes of her father, a medical doctor, arriving home late every night but never too tired to sing her a bedtime lullaby. Most fathers, I suspect, see their daughters as princesses worthy of such attention and, we have to add, of the best of men around.
In the first reading today Paul, quite unabashedly and amazingly, declares his fatherly love for the Corinthian church. After all, he gave it birth by preaching Christ in the city and then taking time there to mold a community together. He cannot help, then, but be deeply put out when that daughter begins to flirt with an imposter. The Christ to whom he introduced the Corinthians is not a legal fundamentalist demanding attention to every article of the law in pursuit of personal perfection. This, however, is how competitor preachers among the Corinthians described Jesus. Rather the true Christ imparts his holy Spirit to move his people first and foremost to love for others.
Nevertheless, we should not see the pursuit of excellence as in opposition to a love for others. Excellence means cultivating the virtues which make us spontaneously and generously give of ourselves. Introspection is part of the process, but we have to move out of ourselves to address the needs of those whom we are called to love.
