3rd Sunday Year A - Homily 6

Homily 6 - 2023

At the end of today’s Second Reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul made a highly significant distinction. He pointed out the crucial difference between what he called “preaching the Good News” of Jesus’ crucifixion, and simply knowing or talking about it or “expressing” it “philosophically”. It is the difference between what the Church refers to as evangelisation or as catechesis — the difference between conveying the “Good News” dimensions of the crucifixion or simply “expressing” or explaining the reality or the meaning of it clearly. At the end of today’s homily we shall all stand and recite the Creed. Creeds or catechisms deal with an event like crucifixion in what Paul was referring to as “the terms of philosophy”. Evangelising tries to evoke the beauty or the wonder or the profound personal impact of Jesus’ crucifixion. Catechesis or “philosophy” aims for clarity or accuracy or orthodoxy. Evangelising speaks to the heart; “terms of philosophy” or orthodoxy speak to the head. [Recently I have been wondering where I would place a homily].

For thinking adults both are necessary. The evangelising needs to come first, aiming to engage people emotionally. It prioritises what Paul called the “Good News” dimension. Without it, even the clearest catechesis or teaching is likely to be greeted with the objection: “It’s boring!” or “So what?”

Actually the Greek original of what Paul wrote shows some sympathy for the bored teen-ager’s reaction. What today’s translation had to say about the “terms of philosophy” being unable to “express” the crucifixion may be better translated by saying they simply “empty the crucifixion” of its primary personal impact.

Today’s Gospel passage said of Jesus himself, “He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people”. Jesus started his mission by engaging people’s interest. He “proclaimed” the “Good News” firstly by his own exuberance and obvious commitment. He told them how God loved them — personally. His curing of the people’s “diseases and sicknesses” not only symbolised and illustrated the potentially wonderful aspects of the coming kingdom — they got people excited and aroused an emotional response from them.

Later he would take things further by instructing them carefully. He made clear how the practical shaping of God’s kingdom in the world would require their deliberate cooperation. He did not conceal the probable personal costs of the “close at hand” kingdom. All that later development was catechesis.

What Paul saw happening to the Corinthians is so relevant to the Church of today. There in Corinth the new converts were polarising on the basis of which leader they barracked for — Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas [Peter]. Some sophisticates even trumped the rest by insisting that they were barracking for Christ! Paul insisted that they were in fact “parcelling out” the crucified Christ — without a qualm. Fighting with each other was emptying out the radical impact of the Christ they claimed to love, the crucified Christ who was killed precisely because of his personal insistence on the need of all true disciples to learn to love and respect each other. Their behaviour denied the very essence of the Church — a community of brothers and sisters in Christ.

They would recover their identity as brothers and sisters in Christ only by getting truly in touch once more with the loving heart of Christ who personally loved each of them.

Given the negative pressures of our fallen nature, we, too, in today’s Church need constantly to re-evangelise ourselves and each other. We do that, I believe, by regular personal contact with Jesus in prayer. Prayer alone is the indispensable means to turn knowledge about Jesus and God his Father into a genuine and effective friendship with them. It is never too late to begin. Who knows where it might lead?