Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

When I came to you, brothers and sisters,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of spirit and power,

Father Juniper Cummings, one of my mentors and still one of the grandest men of my Franciscan community, once observed, “Faith is not taught; it is caught.”

Today’s passage from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians recalls his failure to teach about Jesus in Athens. The eager young missionary had arrived in the intellectual capital of the world thinking he could introduce Jesus Christ to the wizards with persuasive arguments. These philosophers had little use for religion in general but would listen to new ideas. He did pretty well until he announced that the crucified Christ had been raised from the dead. At which point they walked away.

If it was ridiculous that they should follow a crucified hero, they’re worshipping a resurrected messiah was beyond ludicrous.

Arriving in the less sophisticated city of Corinth, Saint Paul took a different tack. He would skip the wise argumentation and demonstrate his faith with spirit and power.  

How exactly he did that I don’t know, but I know the two ways we demonstrate the spirit and power of Jesus today.

The first is with our communal worship. We encounter Jesus face to face in the Eucharist. As the baptized gather with a willing and obedient spirit the Lord speaks to our hearts. Though our thinking, questioning minds might need instruction, our hearts are content to rest in his presence.

Secondly, we demonstrate our spirit and power by our good works. No one is persuaded to faith by arguments. Arguing religion may be the most absurd waste of time yet devised. But people come to faith when they see the joyous, spontaneous, eager generosity of Christians. That is irrefutable proof of the goodness of God.

Just as Corinthians were persuaded by Saint Paul’s demonstrations of spirit and power, so do people come to faith today when they encounter people like you and me.