FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YR A
Zephaniah 2:3,3:12-12; Psalm 146
1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12a
THE CHRISTIAN, A CALLING TO HUMILITY AND GREATNESS
We continue Paul’s letter to the Corinthians for our second reading for today. In today’s letter, Paul shifts attention to the Christian call – a call common to the community. For Paul, the Christian calling can be placed in the tradition of the call of the patriarchs of old.
For Paul, being a Christian is actually a response one makes to the call of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a response of commitment to a certain type of lifestyle. He is writing this letter to them because they seem to have failed in this regard of recognising the beauty of their call and the lack of faithfulness on the part of their commitment to a life that befits that call. We must also recognise that God has called all of us to a new and different lifestyle. How are you living your Christian life?
Our call was not based on any merits on our part, not our intelligence or nobility of our heritage but only by the benevolence and goodness of God. Paul points to the humble beginnings of the Corinthian Christians to indicate to them that God did not need them to be the best because he himself will complete and perfect them in wisdom and nobility.
This is important because the criteria by which the world judges wisdom and nobility is different from that of God. He had already told them that the wisdom of God is the power of the cross which is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. The wisdom of God is that we are all one family at the foot of the cross, irrespective of who we are, where we come from or our place on the social strata. We have become brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. This is why Paul addresses them as “brothers and sisters”. When we gather a church community, are you able to see in the fellow member this family affinity. Do you see a brother and a sister in the person sitting by you in church? If you do, you are living by the wisdom of God.
God makes great out of small. It does not matter how small and insignificant you are, he will make you great. Paul said that God chooses the despised and lowly to shame the wise, he chooses those who count for nothing to reduce to nothing those who are something. Are you feeling down, lowly, despised, unwanted? Turn to God, he will turn it all around for you. Are you feeling disappointed, turn to Jesus he will set an appointment with greatness in your favour. Always remember that God will make you great when you give your life to him completely and totally.
All this will be for the Christian who learns to be humble before the Lord. To be humble is to submit to the Lord totally. In depending on him, he will teach us greatness and help us live to the fullness of our calling as Christians.
Remember, all that we have comes from the Lord.
God bless you.
BY Rev. Fr. Delight Arnold Carbonu
