Readings:
2 Chronicles 12
Sirach 19
1 Corinthians 2

1 Corinthians 2

Paul had a rough go of it when he went to Athens because he mentioned the resurrection of the dead and was mocked by those considered wise in the eyes of men. He apparently felt that the thing that was foolish in the eyes of these philosophers showed how little man’s appreciation of knowledge and wisdom mattered in the face of truth. It’s similar to when a more polished debater takes on a subject and wins in the eyes of the audience, that doesn’t have any bearing on whether his position was true or false, just that the audience voted his presentation and rebuttals to be better.

Paul excuses himself from this world of fanciful language and rhetoric, and decides to preach to the Corinthians in simple and clear terms. He preaches Christ, and his death and resurrection above all other doctrines because it’s the bedrock of Christianity. If you can’t accept the passion and resurrection then it doesn’t matter what Jesus taugh on this or that, because if he didn’t die and rise again then he was just a teacher or rabbi, but he’s not either of those alone, he is the Son of God, and that’s proven undeniably on Easter morning.

It seems that Paul is also saying here that without the graces of God, given through His Holy Spirit, we would be unable to comprehend anything of what he’s saying. We know that a man doesn’t die, stay dead three days, and then come back to life. But that’s what we believe happened here, and the reason we believe it is because we’ve been given the gift of faith. Without this gift of faith we’d never believe it. (See CCC 1996-2005)

Tomorrow’s Readings:
2 Chronicles 13
Sirach 20
1 Corinthians 3