“Who Runs Your Show?” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Who Runs Your Show?” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time 

While there are jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man? Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men? What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters are anything, but only God, who causes the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:3-6)

At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God because for this purpose I have been sent.” (Luke 4:42-43) 

Piety

Our soul waits for the Lord, who is our help and our shield, For in him, our hearts rejoice; in his holy name, we trust. (Psalm 33:20-21)

Study   

One morning last week, I turned on the news when I first woke up. I had slept
well, but after two or three minutes of back-to-back reports on the hurricane approaching the Gulf Coast, the wildfires raging in California, the protests taking place across the country, and the outbreaks of Covid-19 on college campuses, I felt overwhelmed and turned it all off. It was like utter chaos streaming into my bedroom, and we hadn’t even gotten to the election campaigns, yet!  

I imagine the Apostle Paul felt equally overwhelmed at the turn of events in the church in Corinth. He had worked so hard to establish that Christian community. According to Acts 18, Paul had gone straight from Athens to Corinth, where he met Priscilla and Aquila, fellow tent makers. The Apostle stayed with them, making tents and worshiping in the local synagogue, where he was able to talk with the Corinthian Jews about Jesus. He did this day after day. Silas and Timothy later came from Macedonia and spent time with Paul proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. They put all they had into the effort.  It’s arduous work to build a church from the ground up.

So, after all this effort, imagine Paul’s consternation when he later receives reports of trouble from Corinth. He probably wishes he could tune it all out. All that work, and now the Corinthian congregation is at sixes and sevens, with some people claiming to be followers of Apollos and others Paul. Paul writes them to make it clear that God is the One in charge. Different people may have guided different individuals in their spiritual journeys, but the only person they belong to is God in Christ.  Each one has a job, such as Paul’s sowing the seeds of the new Christian community, but God is the one ultimately running the show. God is the only one responsible for the Corinthian Church, or any other church, for that matter, growing.

Action

You’d think we’d have learned something over the centuries. Yet here we are in 2020, and I’m not sure we’re all that far from where the Corinthians were. I hear people today saying they’re Pope Francis Christians, only to hear others responding, “No, I liked Pope Benedict better.”  Or, I’m not too fond of Father so-and-so’s sermons, so I make sure to go to other Masses. I could go on and on with lists of who we listen to and follow, and it’s not always God.

I think Jesus had the right idea. He followed only his Father. He even went out to a deserted place after an entire night of healing others, so that he could talk with and listen to his Abba. Sure, other people had other ideas. The people in today’s Gospel reading wanted Jesus to stay in their village. They had many more sick people that they could bring to Him for healing. For Jesus, though, there was only one person in charge of His agenda, and that was God. In this instance, God wanted Him to move along to other places and people in need of the Good News.

When you have time today to reflect and pray, maybe you could spend some a few minutes considering who’s running your show?