Tuesday of the
Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
(I Corinthians 2:10b-16; Luke 4:31-37)
An American recently wrote an article about her
experience living in a community of L’Arche in Italy. L’Arche pairs people with severe disabilities
with more regularly healthy people. The
writer described being alone with Fabio, a deaf mute with a broken face and
below average mental capacity. She said
that she and Fabio were in the community chapel gazing at the crucifix when Fabio
opened his arms as if he meant to embrace Jesus or, perhaps, in imitation of
Jesus sacrificing himself for the world.
After remaining in this pose a while, Fabio turned to embrace the writer
– a gesture which invited her into the brokenness of the cross and Fabio’s own
brokenness. The writer too opened her
arms and smiled back at Fabio. She said
that she never felt more whole than she did at that moment when Fabio enabled her
to experience a touch of Christ’s love for the world. St. Paul writes of this experience in today’s
first reading.
The passage does not mean to criticize true wisdom. When it speaks of the “spirit of the world,”
it is referring to the competition for fame, fortune, and pleasure that drives
humans everywhere. It recognizes the futility
of such pursuit and recommends a more authentic spiritual quest. It advocates putting on “the mind of Christ”
which inclines people not to worry about their own needs so much as to assist
others with theirs.
Of course, we normally reel at the prospect of such
sacrifice. We want to enjoy as many of
the comforts of life as we can afford. But
on deeper reflection we realize that as Christ died on the cross and rose to
glory out of love for us so we will share his resurrected life the more we die
to self.
