Fifth Sunday in Course 2024
Today we are offered the scriptural view of two preachers of the gospel. First we hear St. Paul, writing to his unique community in sin-city, Corinth, telling them what his reward for his service to the Church is. Then we hear about Jesus, early in His divine ministry to us weak human beings, healing and casting out demons and praying. And it’s good for those of us–and that’s all of us, ordained or not–who are called by God to share the good news, to pay close attention.
Down here in Texas, maybe throughout the South, when we encounter somebody who is totally committed to a cause, we say that he or she is either “bound to” do it or “Kent he’p it.” Either strapped to the cause like a saddle on a mule, or born to do it and unable to do anything else. In a sense, St. Paul was both, but when writing to Corinth, he tells his converts that he is obliged to the ministry. Remember that scene on the road to Damascus a few years earlier? There he was bound to find and arrest as many Christians as he could. He was bound by the Jewish high council in Jerusalem. But on that dusty road to Syria, he was blinded by the light of the Gospel, and before a week was out, he was preparing to carry that light to Jew and Gentile through the whole Roman world. Read the Acts of the Apostles this coming Lent. St. Paul was bound to Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, so that with Him all could be freed from death and bound to a life of resurrection in heaven.
Now let’s look at Paul’s two options, and consider how they might be relevant to each of us. He says one option is to spread the gospel of Christ willingly. Then he would get a reward, a recompense. If not willingly, then he would still have to spread the good news, but that’s because Christ has made him a steward of the gospel. One way or another, he is either bound to the task. And what is his reward for willing service? He tells the Corinthians: “That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.” So he builds up a kind of heavenly credit memo rather than expecting a financial incentive.
When we look at St. Mark’s account of the early ministry of Jesus, we might feel like we fell into the eye of a category 5 hurricane. Jesus was blowing through Galilee in such a way as to attract attention. Curing diseases, preaching to the poor–or really anyone who would listen–driving out demons from the obsessed or possessed. Where, you ask, did Christ get all that energy for His three years of physical ministry in Galilee and Judea? Here’s the key line: “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” Every time we see one of these whirlwind missionary events, we see Jesus praying. It was and is intimate contact with the Trinity–remember He was the Second Person thereof–that fueled Jesus in His humanity. And even if we are only human until we are glorified after death, we can participate in that experience every day. How do we know?
Think back on the conversion of St. Paul, which we celebrated on January 25. There was a Christian named Ananias in Damascus, and Paul was directed by the glorified Christ to seek him there. The Lord appeared to Ananias not long afterwards, and said: “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus: for behold, he prayeth” Paul was about to be baptized and helped to become the Apostle to the whole world, and he got ready for that in prayer.
In the coming season of Lent we will be invited–indeed bound–to more intense prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let’s imitate Paul, and beyond that, Our Lord, and willingly give ourselves to our incredible God by doing so.
