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“Paul and Apollos”
by Sir Edward Poynter, 1872 |
Readings for Wednesday of the Twenty- second Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Brothers and sisters,
I could not talk to you as spiritual people,
but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ.
I fed you milk, not solid food,
because you were unable to take it.
Indeed, you are still not able, even now,
for you are still of the flesh.
While there is jealousy and rivalry among you,
are you not of the flesh, and walking
according to the manner of man?
Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another,
“I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men?
What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul?
Ministers through whom you became believers,
just as the Lord assigned each one.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.
Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything,
but only God, who causes the growth.
He who plants and he who waters are one,
and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor.
For we are God’s co-workers;
you are God’s field, God’s building.
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Commentary on 1 Cor 3:1-9
St. Paul addresses divisions in the church of Corinth. He speaks to them as “fleshly people” (sarkinos), as a people immature in the faith. In Romans 7:14 the apostle defines “sarkinos” as “sold into the slavery of sin.” Because of their worldly nature, they evaluate preachers motivated by vanity and prejudice, not by the spirit.
Apollos is a leader of that congregation who came after St. Paul had left. Both come from the same master as servants (diakonoi). Paul is sent to establish the church, Apollos to develop it. It is obvious from this reading that divisions and rivalries had occurred, as some favored St. Paul, and others Apollos. St. Paul refutes this division saying he and Apollos are one and the same, being sent by the same God. He calls for unity, because it is God who brings salvation. He states that each of them will receive wages for the hard work of the apostolic mission (see also 1 Thessalonians 3:5; Galatians 4:11; Romans 16:12).
CCC: 1 Cor 3:9 307, 755, 756
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21
R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the Lord looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
From his fixed throne he beholds
all who dwell on the earth,
He who fashioned the heart of each,
he who knows all their works.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the Lord,
who is our help and our shield,
For in him our hearts rejoice;
in his holy name we trust.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
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Commentary on Ps 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21
Psalm 33 is a hymn of praise in which God, as the creator, is celebrated. In this selection, the just are invited to share the Lord’s salvation, and are promised his protection. The psalm rejoices in the active help God gives to his chosen people.
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Gospel: Luke 4:38-44
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.
Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,
and they interceded with him about her.
He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases
brought them to him.
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.”
But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak
because they knew that he was the Christ.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.
The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,
they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
But he said to them, “To the other towns also
I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,
because for this purpose I have been sent.”
And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
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Commentary on Lk 4:38-44
This Gospel passage continues the healing mission of Christ in Capernaum. He first heals Simon’s mother-in-law (at this point in St. Luke’s Gospel Simon has not yet been called). He then proceeds to heal all who are brought to him. The demons he cast out were aware of Jesus’ identity as the Son of God (as was the demon in Luke 4:31-37).
When Jesus tries to leave, the people try to keep him with them. Contrast this response with the people of Nazareth, his hometown, earlier. The Lord then proceeds to teach throughout the region, proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
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Reflection:
Today we begin with more of Paul’s distance-learning program for the church at Corinth. Notice he has moved away from his discourse on “Christian wisdom,” and now focuses the problems facing the church itself. Apparently, there is some division among them because, while Paul and his entourage came and started the church, a person named Apollos carried the work forward. Somehow there was a rift with part of the community claiming orthodoxy based upon Paul’s teachings (“I belong to Paul”), and others supporting Apollos.
Paul points out in his letter that by behaving in this rather childish (but true to human nature) way, they were not behaving as a community of faith, but more like the unconverted community at large. (“While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man?”) Even in Paul’s time, there were forces of human nature doing their level best to divide the church. Does this sound familiar?
If we were to bring the time forward about a thousand years, we see that same ugly situation appear, this time in Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade, when members of the Roman Church despoiled the city and churches of the Eastern Church causing a rift that exists to this day. The fracture exists in spite of numerous attempts on both sides to reconcile the differences. Some hurts, when allowed to go untreated for too long, may never heal entirely.
Fast forward about six hundred years. We hear cries from within the ranks of the Church: “I am for Leo X,” and others, “I am for Luther.” This time there was no St. Paul to remind the community that they were behaving childishly, and they should remember the Lord’s teaching. Once more, the Church was divided and, because of the reactions on both sides, no reconciliation was possible. That wound also exists today in the separation of the Lutheran denomination along with all the Bible-based subdivisions that have occurred subsequent to the initial schism.
Less than one hundred years after the Reformation schism, the most recent of the major divisions of the church occurred. When King Henry VIII of England could not win the Church’s blessing for a divorce, he broke away from the Church of Rome and established the Church of England. The Anglican Church also exists to this day as a separate band of Christians, looking to a leader outside of Rome.
Looking back at the history of these schismatic times, what lesson is there for us today? How do we approach the whole idea of Christian unity when so many different ideologies have evolved, and there are so many varying interpretations of the will of God in Christ? The Roman Catholic Church has long maintained, based upon apostolic succession and the teaching magisterium handed down through it, that ours is the authentic path to salvation, and that our spawned brothers and sisters, separated dogmatically from us for good reasons or bad, need to follow our lead.
The problem is once more, as it was in the time of Paul, a human one. There are so many people in positions of authority in those denominations who would rather be in those prestigious leadership roles, rather than being seen as having caved in to the Roman Church, or reconciling years of rejection of papal primacy with a call to unity. I believe the path must continue to be walked. As a friend of mine likes to point out, we are all sailing to the same destination. Some of us are on the “big boat” and some are on small boats following as best they can. We pray for those who travel with us that the truth of Paul’s words come to them and they come at last to know: “we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
Pax
[1] The picture is “Paul and Apollos” by Sir Edward Poynter, 1872.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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