THE FIFTH (5 TH ) SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME THE EYES OF THE SOUL GROW DIM IN LESSER LIGHTS: FOCUS ON THE LIGHT OF LIGHTS My mother likes to tease me saying, Mark, if it s not in a book, then you don t know it. She takes good-natured pleasure in saying that I know nothing about life. Don t worry, she s just joking. And I play along, giving her plenty of opportunities to joke. Occasionally she calls me Fr. Dumb well, never mind that. We all have gaps and blind-spots. Each of us knows what we know, and if we are intelligent, each of us also knows that we don t know everything. (If one is really intelligent one, he or she will know that he or she actually knows very little.) Arguably, St. Paul may have known more things and about a broader range of things than most people. He knew how to make tents; he was a Pharisee and so knew the Mosaic Law and Hebrew Scriptures inside-and-out; he knew, spoke fluently, and wrote comfortably Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin; he was conversantly familiar with the main religions of the pagan world; and he was greatly interested in sports. Yet today we heard Paul say, I did not come proclaiming in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:1-2). He is telling the Corinthians, No matter what else I might know, or you might know, you gotta learn this. In the 1991 movie City Slickers, Curly (played by Jack Palance) asks Mitch (played by Billy Crystal), Do you know what the secret of life is? And he holds up one finger. This, Curly says, Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don t mean beep. St. Paul is Christianity s first century Curly. The secret of life is knowing Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ crucified. The rest don t mean didly. Overly simplistic? Maybe. Hyperbolic? Maybe. But we can t know everything; best to know the most important thing. 1
The now-late Robert P. Parker wrote a popular series of mysteries featuring Spenser, a Boston-based private investigator. Spenser is old-school macho: a stand-up guy, principled, chivalrous, and able to put the hurt on bad guys. But Spenser is also a big reader. He quotes Shakespeare and Montaigne, Robert Frost, and Leo Tolstoy. Spenser s wide-ranging familiarity with literature is a constant source of amazement to his friends. In one novel, a character remarks, Spenser, you know more things that don t make you money than anyone I know. I hope there are people who can say that about all of us. It would be tragic if someone knew nothing more than how to make money. But do the other things we know, profit us for salvation? The cultural critic Neil Postman (like Robert Parker, also now deceased) wrote a famous book he entitled Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985). That s perhaps an apt description of a major driving force behind many people s thoughts and behaviors. Ours is too often the Pyrrhic Victory of the superficial over the profound, of non-essentials over essentials. I am beyond any doubt as guilty of this as anyone can possibly be. I have spent years and years thinking about and doing things that haven t profited me for salvation. I am painfully and shamefully aware of how spiritually impoverished I remain. Are you and I laboring under that same burden? St. Paul wrote once wrote, Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. [ ] I count [all things] as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him that I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Phil 3:7-9, 11). To repeat what we heard today, Paul decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). St. Paul deliberately chose to speak plainly in order to manifest only the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 2:4) so his hearers would recognize that the truth and power in the words 2
he spoke came entirely from God and not from Paul s learnedness, wit, and charisma (1 Cor 2:5). The Corinthians were on the whole themselves sophisticated and educated. So, St. Paul took great pains to distinguish the Wisdom of God from the cleverness and ingenuity of [the Greek] philosophers and thinkers with whom the Corinthians would have been familiar. You are yourselves intelligent, urbane, talented, movers and shakers, masters of worlds. You know much. But what beyond today will all of this avail you or me? It will be for us someday as it was for the rich man Jesus spoke of in a parable: [Y]our life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong? Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God (Lk 12:20-21). Therefore, Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Col 3:2). Consider these words written in the 15 th century by the monk, Thomas à Kempis. He is addressing his fellow monks in regard to academic pursuits, but as you listen, substitute instead something that might more likely occupy you or distract you from your true purpose in life. Let all the study of our heart be from now on to have our meditation fixed wholly on the life of Christ. [ ] Deeply inquisitive reasoning does not make a man holy or righteous, but a good life makes him beloved by God. I would rather feel compunction of heart for my sins than merely know the definition of compunction. [ ] [T]here are many things whose knowledge brings but little profit and little fruit to the soul; he is most unwise who gives heed to any other thing except what will profit him to the health of his soul. Words do not feed the soul, but a good life refreshes the mind, and a clean conscience brings a man to a firm and stable trust in God. [ ] Our opinion, our intelligence, and our understanding often deceive us, for we do not see the truth. Of what use is the knowledge of such things as will neither help us on the day of judgment if we know them, nor hurt us if we do not know them? [ ] Well-ordered learning is 3
not to be belittled, for it is good and comes from God, but a clean conscience and a virtuous life are much better and more to be desired. [ ] On the day of judgment we will not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have discoursed, but how religiously we have lived (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Image Edition, 31-32, 33, 34, 35). St. Paul knew this. He lived and spoke both humbly and reverently (1 Cor 2:3). After his conversion, he pursued through every word and deed only Jesus Christ. What do we pursue? How many things do we know or seek that do not serve to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven (Mt 6:20)? Knowledge, riches, personal or professional acknowledgement, athletic scholarships for our children? Better for us to set all that aside and know only Jesus Christ just like St. Paul chose to do. It is the way of sainthood and make no mistake about it: each of us is called by God to be a saint (insofar as understanding sainthood to indicate eternal life in heaven). To know Christ Jesus and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2) is the only way to be the salt of the earth (is the only way to enhance the ordinary) and the light of the world (is the only way to generate joy and devotion) (Mt 5:13a, 14a). Fr. Mark Summers Pastor, St. Peter Catholic Church 9 February 2014: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A. Readings: Isaiah 58:7-10. Psalm 112:4-9. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. Matthew 5:13-16. 4
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