Year A: 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1: 10-13, 17

As we read last week, the community in Corinth was made up of people from many different backgrounds and so conflict between them was not altogether surprising.

The source of conflict today is which leader of the community is best. As is the case in the Church today, leaders have different gifts. Some appeal to one group of people - and others to another group -and there is a danger that the messenger becomes more important than the message.

This is the point that Paul is making. It is no good saying that you are for Apollos - for Cephas (another name for Peter) - or Paul - or Christ as if Christ can be parcelled up according to taste.

Paul brings it all back to the crucifixion of Christ - a mystery that cannot be explained. In the section that comes immediately after the one we read here, Paul speaks of the crucifixion as a source of division between Jews and Greeks - and yet, it is the event that unites the believers in a way that nothing else can. Jews, he says, demand one thing - and Greeks demand another - but God is beyond the human need to demand proof. In fact, God cannot prove what is beyond our comprehension.

The temptation is to grab the things we do understand and convince ourselves that this is the whole Truth - and worse - that we are right - and everyone who disagrees is wrong.

Part of the teaching authority of the Church is given to guard against this - where it insists that no one person has a monopoly of the Truth. People may have different opinions and different insights - but they can only ever be part of the whole.

It is a source of tension even today - as theologians - and writers - and others - wrestle to understand the Truth - sometimes getting so caught up with their new - and probably God-given insight - that they lose sight of all the rest. Then follow conflict and arguments that cannot be resolved because the starting-points are so far apart.

It is then that the wisdom of God becomes clearest - as Paul says in that later passage - God’s foolishness is greater than the greatest of human wisdoms - His weakness stronger than the greatest human strength.

For God’s foolishness - and His weakness are revealed by the Cross - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - a Mystery before which all difference - all arrogance and boastfulness can only fall silent...

 What does it mean for me?

What conflicts and divisions are you aware of in the Church today? How does today’s reading (and the passage which follows it) help you to find a way to deal with them?

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