The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 5, 2023

1 Corinthians 2, 1–5

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, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass gives us the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount.  With these words, the Lord tells his disciples that they are a “city on a hill”, the “salt of the earth”, and the “light of the world”.  In today’s Second Reading, we see how this often looks in the world: St. Paul, who came to the Corinthians “in weakness and fear and much trembling”.  He knew very well that he was not a great orator.  Though he spoke Greek and was familiar with Greek culture, he was not a Greek and was not trained in the art of rhetoric or in logic so that he could persuade with his words.  He “did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.”  Nor did he look Greek.  He was a Jew from Western Asia, not from the rich and proud Greek cities. 

And yet for many Corinthians, he indeed did serve as a city set on a hill, as the salt of the earth, as the light of the world.  His deep, practiced faith lifted them into the heights of faith themselves; it revealed the richness of the universe and of the love of its Creator; it lit the way to Almighty God.

Instead of assimilating the Lord Jesus to their tastes as a philosopher, as a successor to Socrates, or as a Greek hero like Heracles, he “resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”  Paul presented Jesus as he revealed himself to us, as the Savior of the world who died on the Cross for us.  He presented him as the Son of God who loved us to death.  

Not many of us are born with silver tongues, nor many who study rhetoric and logic in school so that we can engage in persuasive public speaking.  But any of us who deeply love and believe in the Lord Jesus and have received the grace of baptism can spread the Gospel through the example of our lives, through the words we do speak, and very importantly, through our prayers.  It is a cold, harsh world.  Let people warm themselves by the fires of our faith and love for Christ.