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The Catholic Telegraph
February 8, 2002In response to the divisions that had occurred in the local church of Corinth as a result of the members’ enthusiasm for the gifts of one or the other church leader, Paul has reminded them that human talents and human standing were not the basis for their faith. They have been saved by the power of Christ and not by any contribution that any of them brought to the relationship with God.
In this Sunday’s reading he applies the same sort of argumentation to his own apostolate in their midst.
He brought them "the mystery of God," the proclamation of God’s secret plan of salvation for His human creatures. But the mystery was not offered to them in the trappings of lofty words or deep human wisdom. Paul deliberately limited his presentation of the gospel to the unadorned truth about Christ and His saving death. That’s all he needed to know about and that’s all he shared with them.
He proclaimed the gospel not with the confidence of a professional wordsmith, but with the reverential fear that was appropriate to someone who knew he was doing God’s work. He didn’t try to use methods of human persuasion on them. He merely showed them what the Spirit offered and the result was the miracle of their faith, their community, a result that could be attributed only to the work of the Spirit and not to the effectiveness of human eloquence or human wisdom.
In this passage Paul makes it clear that, in his preaching, he wanted his hearers to pay attention to what he said, not to how he said it. The results of his proclamation can be attributed only to the power of God, not to any gift or talent on the part either of the speaker or of his hearers. What counts is the redemption wrought by Christ crucified and the disbursement of that salvation through the power of the Spirit. Nothing else is really important.
Just as the Corinthians did not deserve salvation because of their sophistication and human excellence (which they didn’t even have to any great extent!), so Paul was not a successful evangelist because of his impressive oratory and philosophical profundity.
Does all of this mean anything to us? I believe it means a lot to us.
First of all it means that the ministers of the gospel who serve God’s people today must rely on the power and presence of God for the success of their work just as Paul did. The main agent of their work is the Lord, just as the Lord was the main agent in Paul’s work. They are called to give witness to the Lord, not to entertain their hearers or impress them by the quality of their presentation.
This does not mean that ministers of the gospel don’t need to cultivate human skills for their ministry. God does use human means to carry out His will. The fact that it is God who touches hearts doesn’t mean that therefore the priest doesn’t need to prepare his homilies! All of us who proclaim the gospel have to make ourselves as effective an instrument of God’s power as we can be. But it is still the Lord who uses the instruments that we provide. It is the Lord who is the principal agent, the main doer, no matter how humanly skilled or how humanly talented the human proclaimer may be and whatever success is forthcoming is the Lord’s success and not ours.
The fact that God is the main agent in calling people to life in Christ also has something to say to people who are not professional church ministers. Often those who see themselves as "ordinary people" in the Church act as if it is only priests or professional religious educators who are responsible for proclaiming the gospel. That’s not the way God intends it to be. If God can use the limited talents and abilities of His professional ministers, God can also use the talents and abilities of other members of the Church. You don’t have to wait until you have a doctorate in theology or until you have done extensive training in homiletics in order to share the good news of God’s love with other people.
Every member of the Church is called to bear witness to the gospel, to let other people see and know what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Parents do this all the time simply by living out their faith in ways that their children can see and eventually understand. Friends evangelize each other when they share their lives and activities and each gradually comes to discern what makes the other tick. We announce the gospel to the people we work with as they come to know why we do what we do and what our personal values are. When we stand up for what we believe in opposition to those who disagree with us, we are giving witness to our faith and inviting our opponents to consider our point of view. We are all called to evangelize.
The Spirit of God is the principal preacher of Christ’s gospel. He can use professional ministers of religion for His purposes and He can use "ordinary people." He can use human skills and talents to get His message across, or He can do without them. All that the Spirit requires is our willingness to be His instruments.
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Conversation Questions.
Who is the most effective minister of the gospel I have ever known?
What are/were his/her gifts?
How do I experience the power of God working in and through my life?
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