Click here for today’s Scripture readings.
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27
Lk 6:39-42
We have a good number of letters from Paul the Apostle that tell us about him. A remarkable personality, wasn’t he? Yet, suppose all his other letters were destroyed and we were left with this one fragment from his First Letter to the Corinthians, which we read today. We would still be able to say: He was a zealous man.
His words are zealous. No lack of commitment in Paul. “I preach the gospel, an obligation imposed on me, woe if I do not preach it.” He’s a person with a mission, and he embraces it to the full.
For him, his mission isn’t a paying proposition, something that benefits him. “When I preach I offer the gospel free of charge.” His efforts don’t leave others obligated to him or give him a position of power. “I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible.” His zeal is not for his own interest or aims or security. He works for God. Full time.
He’s a dedicated runner in a race, an athlete in love of the game. He’s running to win and accepts the discipline that comes with his mission. “No, I drive my body and train it,?for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”
Paul’s zeal is something you see in all the saints. I think of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists, who had that kind of zeal too. It’s not a human kind of zeal. Saints look for an imperishable crown.
May God send saints like them.
Fr. Victor Hoagland, CP is the Director of Passionist Press and a member of the Passionist Community in Union City, NJ`
Related articles by Zemanta
- The Complaints of the Apostle (thepassionists.org)
- Gregory the Great (thepassionists.org)
- St. Peter Claver: Patron of Immigrants (thepassionists.org)
