Saturday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 11, 2023

Mark 8, 1-10

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets. There were about four thousand people. He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

The Gospels relate two miraculous feedings of crowds.  The first, of five thousand men, plus the women and children, took place near Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee.  In the Gospel of St. Mark, we find this in Mark 6, 30-44.  The location for the feeding of the four thousand is not given.  Because St. Mark places this feeding just after the Lord’s healing of the deaf-mute in the region of the Decapolis, some scholars say that this feeding was of Gentiles, not Jews.  This is an interesting idea, but without a direct statement to this by the Evangelist, there is no reason to think so.  For one thing, Mark omits the location of the Lord’s preaching and miracles a number of times as though he does not think it necessary for us to know.  He is not St. Luke or St. John, who are very careful with locations and sequences of events.  His use of “in those days” is so general that he could mean any time around the events he has previously related.  It is as though he just slips this account in.

“Jesus summoned the disciples.”  That is, his Apostles.  After preaching for some time, he stopped.  He may have stopped a number of times during the course of a day’s preaching in order to allow the crowd to discuss and absorb some word of his.  Here, he also “summons” his Apostles, as though they had been dispersed.  “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.”  Because of the manner in which the Jews count the day — from sunset to sunset rather than from midnight to midnight, as we do — this could mean part of one day, say, after the midday meal, then a whole day, and then part of the next day, say, to the midday meal.  This seems right because it would make sense for the Lord to feed them at the accustomed time of the main meal of the day, which was eaten at midday.  Though this is a long time for us modern folks to go without food, the ancient Jews were used to periods of hard fasting.  Still, the people in the crowd would have grown hungry by then.  “If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.”  This line reveals that Jesus knew these people and where they were from, though he had never set his (human) eyes upon them before.  His knowledge of them and his concern for them is very touching.

“Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”  it is interesting that the Apostles thought to respond at all.  We know from St. John that in the feeding of the five thousand, the Lord first asked the disciples to feed the people, but after rummaging around, all they could find was a few fish and loaves carried in a basket by a boy.  Curiously, the Apostles do not think to suggest to Jesus that he produce food for the people as he had before.  This may be because some time had elapsed since the first feeding and they simply had forgotten what he had done then, so overwhelmed were they with all else that he had done.  Or they may have not seen anyone like the boy with his little store of food, and all the food available was what they themselves had, and they did not want to part from that, little as it was.  

“ ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They replied, ‘Seven.’ ”  The Apostles customarily carried provisions with them, as we see from Matthew 16, 5, where the Evangelist remarks that they had forgotten on this occasion to bring bread with them.  “He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.”  He did this so that they could eat.  They had stood while he had taught them, as was customary at the time.  “Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.”  Jesus thanked his Father for the little food that was then available.  This blessings or thanksgiving was short.  The one for bread used by Jews today, which seems very old, runs: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”  This prayer could also be used for all other types of food.  According to the oral traditions of the Jews collected in the Talmud, the term “breaking bread” refers to the prayer itself, not necessarily to a physical breaking of the bread.  Now, the Lord may have introduced the physical breaking of the bread to the Apostles to prepare them for his Sacrifice.  They would have understood this when he took the bread st the Last Supper, physically broke it, and said, “This is my Body which will be given up for you”.  The Lord introducing this practice would also explain how the disciples on their way to Emmaus recognized the risen Christ in the breaking of the bread (cf. Luke 24, 35).  Otherwise it is hard to see how the recitation of such a short prayer could have revealed him to them.

“They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.”  The fish are mentioned separately because a particular blessing was reserved for fish that was to be eaten.

“They ate and were satisfied.”  That is, they took the bread and fish that was provided for them as though they were indigent, and they took it from the hands of the Apostles at the Lord’s direction.  They were fed by him.  This is a sign of his feeding them his teaching, and also of the grace with which he would fill his followers in the future — it would super-abound, just as there was much food left over after the people had eaten the Lord’s bread and fish.  “He dismissed the crowd and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.”  Typically after the midday meal, workers and their families slept.  This was a fitting use of the time when the day was at its hottest anyway.  The Lord dismissed the people so that they can go home and do this.  Those from far away could get a good start on their return before sunset.  

“Dalmanutha.”  This name only crops up once in Greek literature, and it is not certain where this place was.  It would seem to be an Aramaic name.  Conjecture has it near Magdala, on the Sea of Galilee.

As the Lord has broken the bread of his Body and offered it for our salvation, we ought to be eager to offer him our lives in thanksgiving for his Sacrifice.

 Friday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 10, 2023

Mark 7, 31-37

Jesus left the district of Tyre and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”).  And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Since Sidon is to the north of Tyre and the cities of the Decapolis were to the southeast, it is hard to understand the route St. Mark gives for the Lord’s movements unless he meant that the Lord intended to visit the region around Sidon, and then he headed for the Decapolis.  All of these places were inhabited by Gentiles.  It is interesting that St. Mark shows the Lord to have spent so much time among the Gentiles, more than the other Evangelists, just as John shows the Lord among the Samaritans more than the others.  The Decapolis was a group of ten cities, of which Damascus was one, which lay beyond the eastern bank of the Jordan River.  Greek and Roman culture was celebrated there, and temples to the gods abounded, besides amphitheaters and baths.  To this pagan region, the Lord led his Apostles — and not just to its fringe, for the Greek tells us that he went into the middle of it.

“And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment.”  In spite of the fact that the Lord came into a Greek land, the people knew of him and of his power.  And they did not quail at the notion of bringing their sick to a Jew from Galilee for healing (in the way that no Jew would think to go to a Greek for healing).  We would like to know what the Greeks there thought of him: was he a demigod, a magician, or a hero of some sort?  But we do not know.  We do know that the Lord had compassion on them and did not withhold from the Gentiles anything that he gave to the Jews.  While the lesson might be lost on us, it was a powerful one for the Apostles.  Mark says that a group of people brought a deaf man who stammered (as the Greek tells us) before the Lord so that he might be healed.  We can imagine the man’s friends or family members taking him out of his house and bringing him through the streets to the Lord.  The man probably knew nothing about Jesus or why he was being pushed and pulled this way.  He may have stammered loudly in protest.  Certainly he could not have thought he was being taken to be cured.  

“They begged him to lay his hand on him.”  The people who brought the man would have spoken to the Lord in Greek.  Some Aramaic was still spoken in the region, but mostly only in small villages.  Hebrew was not spoken there at all.  The people wanted the Lord “to lay his hand” upon the man because they wanted a visual sign that some action was being performed.  We humans are caressed with senses, and all that we know comes to us through our senses.  We have a natural desire and need to see things and hear things.  Their desire to see the man’s healing by Jesus corresponds with the man’s desire to hear the Lord’s voice.

“He took him off by himself away from the crowd.”  A sizable crowd had grown, impeding the Lord from giving a sign of his healing that everyone could see.  “He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!” (that is, ‘Be opened!’).”  The Lord did not need to use these actions to heal the man, but used them so that the people, a pagan people, could understand that the power which healed the man came from him directly, and that he did not summon it from the gods on Olympus or from the world of nature.  And instead of using a Greek word, the Lord spoke an Aramaic word.  In doing so, he pointed the Greeks to the God of the Jews.

“And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.”  The Lord’s healings are instantaneous.  There is no slow recovery or period of convalescence.  That the man “spoke plainly” indicates that he spoke Greek plainly in spite of the fact that he had never heard it before due to his deafness.  

“He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it.”  He does this amongst the Jews too, sometimes.  The Lord, who knows what people will do, does not let their future disobedience stop him from performing a merciful act.  This helps us to understand the Crucifixion:  the mercy of God is such that he died for us even though he knew we would sin again and again.  It is heartbreaking if we really think about it.

“They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”  We can all say: He has done all things well.  He has forgiven my sins when I came to him in repentance.

 Thursday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 9, 2023

Genesis 2, 18-25

The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” So the Lord God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man. So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”  That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.

“It is not good for the man to be alone.”  Throughout the first account of the creation of the world as told in the Book of Genesis, God created something, placed it somewhere, and declared that it was “good”.  Here, breaking the rhythm, he finds something that is “not good”, that is, something not finished.  We might wonder why the all-knowing, all-powerful God created something that was not complete, but it was not as though God had made a mistake or miscalculation.  Rather, he does this for our edification.  The “man” whom God had made, the adamah, from the Hebrew word for earth, contained all that was necessary to be human, but was still incomplete.  Now, God does not create a second adamah to keep the first company.  Instead, he creates the man and woman both from the adamah.  They are created as belonging to each other from the beginning.  They are created in  intimacy with each other.

“He took out one of his ribs.”  The original mutual dignity of the man and the woman was created at this time, as shown by this verse, for the Hebrew word usually translated as “rib” is better translated as “side”: God split the adamah down the middle and then built the halves into full, and fully complementary, human beings.  Two ways, in fact, of being human.

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  The man exclaims this with joy at his recognition of his helpmate.  Though he understands that she is different in appearance as well as distinct from him, he also sees that they are in every way equal to one another, mutual helpmates, created for each other by a deliberate act of Almighty God.  He also recognizes that they are made for intimacy with each other.  She is not flesh of another’s flesh, but of his.  When God creates a man or a woman today, he creates that person with a particular vocation, usually to marriage.  The person whom the other is to marry is not left up to chance by God, but fully laid out in his Providence.  A person is created to marry a particular person whom God creates with the vocation to marry the first person.  A husband and wife are literally made for each other by God.  As the author of Genesis comments, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.”  This “clinging” is not merely physical or emotional but exists on a deeper level for which the physical embrace is but a sign.  And this deeper “clinging”, as real and as powerful as it is, is but the sign of Christ and the soul that belongs to him.

We pray for young people who are called to marriage that they will search for the one person for whom they were created in this world, and that they will find them.  We pray for married couples to persevere in the vocation to which God has called them that they may be a sign to us all of the constancy of God’s love and his desire for union with us.

 Wednesday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 8, 2023

Mark 7, 14-23

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) “But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him. From within the man, from his heart, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile.”

The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass follows that from yesterday, in which the Lord upbraided the scribes and Pharisees for negating the Law of God for the regulations of their particular sect.

“Jesus summoned the crowd again.”  The Lord wanted all the people to understand the true difference between the clean and unclean.  He does not intend for this matter to form the matter for debate with only the professional theologians.  “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.”  we should note how the Lord speaks simply and directly — this is a sign of love.

“Are even you likewise without understanding?”  The Lord points out to the Apostles how far they still have to go before they themselves can teach.  But their confusion as to his meaning tells us of the enormous truth that he is teaching them.  For well over a thousand years, the people had lived according to the Law of Moses, which instructed them regarding what was pure and impure; what could be eaten and what could not be eaten.  This formed an exceedingly important part of the Law and of their identity as Jews.  It was nearly as important to them as the law regarding the Sabbath.  The Lord seemed to be challenging their very existence as Jews.  He seemed to be challenging the Law given to Moses by God.  In addition, the purity laws played an exaggerated role in the life of the Pharisees.  It could be said that they existed in order to safeguard these laws  “Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?”  The Lord elaborates on what he had told the crowds and affirms that he had said what they thought he had said.  Mark lays it out even plainer in a comment, as though to underline it: “Thus he declared all foods clean.”  Perhaps this even shocked the Gentile Christians for whom he was writing.

“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.”. The Lord is now fulfilling the Law of the clean and unclean.  The prohibitions against certain foods was a sign of true impurity, and now that the Lord fulfills the sign with his teaching, the reason for the sign disappears and all foods can be understood as “clean”, while the nature of certain actions is made clear: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly”.  The Lord specifies that these are from “within”, so, murdering a person in one’s heart, lusting after someone in one’s heart, and so on.  The Lord says, according to the Greek: “But the wicked things that come out of a man defile him.”  That is, these are more than sins.  They render a person fit only for hell.  They are not mere thoughts.  They change a person and make him worse than just a sinner.  The Law described acts that were sinful and were forbidden, but it did not say they made a person unclean, greatly hindering him from living his daily life with others.  But the Lord reveals that these sins make a person unclean, an outsider.

How seriously we should consider sin and how hard we ought to work to avoid it!

 Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 7, 2023

Mark 7, 1-13

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds.) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and Whoever curses father or mother shall die. Yet you say, ‘If someone says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”

I have an observation to share which struck me as I was reading the Letter to the Hebrews the other day: In the Covenant between God and Israel made in the Sinai desert, the blood of animals was sprinkled on the people as a sign of their agreement to abide by the Law given them by God through Moses.  In the Ancient Near East, the making of covenants always involved blood.  In the Covenant made between God and man by Jesus Christ (who himself was God and man), the Apostles are given the Lord’s Blood to drink.  They are not sprinkled with it; they are told to drink it.  And it is not a sign of the Covenant; it makes the Covenant and gives it the power to confer eternal life.  We should think about this: the Lord did not want to merely sprinkle the Apostles with his Blood.  This would make it only a sign which would be washed off eventually. He wanted them to drink his Blood so that they could gain eternal life from the Covenant.  The first Covenant is a sign; the second is the reality.

The Pharisees arose out of the struggle between the Greek rulers of Israel in the third century B.C. and the Israelites who were still reclaiming their traditions and resettling the land after seventy years of exile in Babylon.  Those who banded together to radically separate themselves from the Greeks and from those Jews assimilating to the Greek ways began to be called “Pharisees” at this time.  They played an important part in the fight for independence from the Greeks and enjoyed the favor of the people after that independence was won.  But whether this was true from their beginning or resulted from pressure by fringe elements within the sect, they believed that it was necessary for all Jews to abide by the purity laws which, according to the Law, were to be observed by the priests working in the Temple.  At least in part, this belief arose from a desire to make the Jews even more distinct as a people than their neighbors.  Most of the Jews followed their teachings, as we see from Mark’s comment, “the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, etc.”because there was no one around to argue that they misrepresented the Law.  But following their teachings also satisfied a certain national or cultural chauvinism.  It was into this milieu that the Lord Jesus came.

“When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus.”  The account presented in today’s Gospel Reading follows stories of dramatic miracles and mentions of the enormous and constant crowds that came to Jesus from everywhere.  It contrasts starkly with the preceding through the hypercritical comments by the Pharisees and also scribe sent as representatives of the high priests in Jerusalem.  “They observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.”  We should note that these are some of his disciples”, as opposed to his Apostles.  The number of these offending disciples seems small.  And yet the Pharisees and scribes (who tended to be Pharisees) picked them out.  “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” Their question makes it sound as though all of the Lord’s disciples were rejecting the “tradition of the elders”.  Now, they were right to call it that rather than to call it “the Law”, but for them it amounted to the same thing.  And this may have been Mark’s intent in directly quoting their question: to show how they failed to make the distinction though they knew, on some level, that there was one.  

“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites.”  This is the first use of the Greek hypokrites, which means an actor who, in the Greek theaters, wore a mask to play his part.  This Greek word was used to translate the Hebrew word for “a godless man” in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.  Perhaps the idea for using this word was that a mask would allow an unprincipled person to appear respectable.  But it may also reflect the Hebrew hostility towards the theater as a pagan Greek invention where plays involving actors portraying the Greek gods were put on.  It is proper, then, for us to read “godless men” where the text says “hypocrite”.  It is a severe charge to make against a Jew who prided himself on his radical separation from people like the Greeks.  The Lord does not hesitate to do so.  The quotation from Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts”, defines the term.

After setting forth the example of the qorban (a Hebrew word taken directly into the Greek text), the Lord sums up, “You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”  This is a warning to us as well, lest we modify or drop some part of the laws the Lord Jesus bequeathes the Church so that we might carry on with some activity which seems more important, such as allegedly preserving family unity by attending Masses between divorced people whose former marriages have not been annulled by the Church, or recognizing as a married couple men and women living together in sin.  The laws we follow are the Lord’s and can easily by found in the Scriptures.  They are not mere human precepts.  It is very necessary for us not to treat our Lord’s commandments as though they were.

 Monday in the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time, February 6, 2023

Mark 6:53-56

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

Today’s Gospel Reading describes events following the Lord’s feeding of the five thousand and then his walking on water after he subsequently sent the Apostles away.

Gennesaret was a plain of four or five miles in length located between the towns of Capernaum and Magdala along the western coast of the Sea of Galilee.  It is described by ancient authors as a beautiful place, lush with vegetation.  A small town of that name existed in that area with that name.  The Lord’s coming to this spot might have been as a way to give his disciples rest, but also showing them how scarce is rest for the true disciple.  “People immediately recognized him.”  Agricultural workers perhaps, or others who came to enjoy the natural beauty of the site.  It is not surprising that the Lord was recognized: he had lived and worked in this area for many months by this time.  

“They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.”  This verse speaks of the immense suffering in Galilee at that time: so much sickness, even after the Lord had leaked so many people.  The verse also infers that though Jesus and the Apostles landed at Gennesaret, they did not remain there long.  This is confirmed by the following verse: “Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak.”  This show of faith by the people contrasts markedly with the opposition and hostility of the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.  Mark is careful in highlighting this for the Gentiles who might have wondered why they should follow the teachings of one who was rejected by his own people.  Mark shows that the people loved him and sought him out for help; the leaders hated him out of jealousy.  “As many as touched it were healed.”  This reminds us of how simple a matter it is for us to hop in a car and drive to a church to go to confession at a regular, advertised hour.  These people of long ago had to rely on days old reports about the Lord’s whereabouts, and perhaps have to trek for many miles following his trail to catch up with him.  But their perseverance, fired by their faith, resulted in total and immediate healing.

 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.