Readings:
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Luke 4:38-44
Reflection
Today’s readings from St Luke bring us to the early ministry of Jesus. Already, as a Prophet, he has been rejected in his own town and barely escaped with his life. “Who is this man?”
Then, meeting with a demoniac, he silences and rebukes the devil within, which leaves the man unharmed and free, and the bystanders amazed. “Who IS this man?”
Arriving at Simon’s house and seeing Simon’s mother-in-law in “high fever,” he rebuked the illness, it left her, and she began playing host to Jesus and his companions. “WHO IS THIS MAN?”
The Corinthians reading Paul’s letter may have asked, “Who is this man?” These people were proud of their great city and elevated culture but lived in a time of great immorality.
But Paul rebuked them for their childish understanding of the gospel. Not unlike us today, they were split into factions and competing sects, destroying the work of the kingdom.
How might Paul rebuke the divisive nature of our society today? Paul goes on: “Are we not all called to be laborers in His field, building the temple of the God” of many names, the holy place that is everywhere and in all of us, the presence of God on earth—the Universal Christ?
So then… can we continue to labor and build this Holy Place, working as Paul did?
David Peter Folkes is a former Passionist Priest who resigned and married with 2 children and 2 grandchildren living in Chicago. He is mostly involved with refugee resettlement and racial equity issues.