INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 3rd Sunday in
Ordinary Time [Year A] - is, “The Mind of Jesus.”
1ST
CORINTHIANS
Today’s Second Reading from 1st Corinthians
talks about the mind.
MIND
NOUS is the Greek word used by Paul
for one’s mind. To the Greeks and to Paul, the mind is our center of reflection, our consciousness, where we
process what we see, perceive, understand, feel, figure out, wonder about judge, determine, learn,
remember. It’s our headquarters. It’s
us.
Our mind!
Paul finds out that the Christian Community in the Greek
City of Corinth is divided. There are divisions, rivalries. People are not of
the same mind. They are not on the same page.
Some are following Chloe - an influential and well known
woman - head of a household and a place where Paul stays. This is the only place we hear about this
woman. Her name, Chloe, which means “Green Herb.”
Did she complain to Paul?
We don’t know. But in this first chapter of 1st Corinthians, we find out people are claiming to be
following her. Others claim to be following Paul. Others are saying they are
following Apollos. Others say they are
following Cephas or Peter and others
say, “I am following Christ.”
So Paul in his letter is saying: end the divisions and the rivalries - and be
of one mind.
Then in the next chapter of 1st Corinthians, Paul will say in 2:16, to have the mind of Jesus.
There it is, the title of my homily, “The Mind of Jesus.”
Growth in the Christian life is listening to Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John, Paul, Peter and James and learning the mind of Jesus.
This year we’re listening to Matthew - especially.
I would sense - that the way Christian spirituality works
- is that we slowly figure out our mind - then we sense that others don’t see
things the way we see things. Then we try to sense what Jesus’ mind was.
Comparing - figuring - wondering - listening -
questioning - is what we human beings are doing all the time.
WHAT ARE WE
FISHING FOR - WHAT DO WE REALLY WANT?
For starters, there we are on the beach - on the planet -
fishing for whatever we’re fishing for in life.
What are we trying to catch?
In today’s first reading from Isaiah and today’s gospel
from Matthew we have the same text. We all feel at times we’re in the dark -
and we want light.
The mind wants to be enlightened.
I love telling the story of visiting a couple I had
married a few years earlier.
I’m sitting there in their living room - chatting and
their son - little Sal - is standing on one of those low lying electrical heating
radiator - that go along the wall around
the room. With one hand on the window sill, his other hand is trying to grab
something out of the air - something coming in through the window.
I say to his parents, “What is your son doing?”
His mom, Ann, says, ‘”What do you mean?”
I say, “Little Sal is trying to grab something coming
through the window.”
“Oh,” his mom says, “He’s trying to grab the light.”
Then she added, “He does that all the time.”
Sure enough, in time he became a teacher.
He was fishing for the light.
So that’s a life question: what are we fishing for? What
are we trying to grab? What is our mind trying to figure out. What lights are we after?
ANSWER: THE MIND
OF CHRIST
Hopefully, we want to discover the mind of Jesus and then
live by it.
What are our Jesus questions?
Like why did Jesus
wait till he did to begin preaching and teaching? What triggered his
coming out - when he came out of Nazareth as we heard it today’s gospel. Was
John’s arrest the trigger? He went to
Capernaum on the edge of the sea of Galilee. He walked the beach and called 4 young men - Peter and Andrew [the most important apostle] - and James and John - also brothers - and
all 4 dropped everything at the moment to follow Jesus.
Would we do that?
Isn’t that the Christian life - to follow Jesus - to
bring into our mind, the mind of Jesus?
And the mind of Jesus gives various lights - various
secrets of happiness - how to live life to the full. If we follow Jesus he’ll
tell us about forgiveness, giving, loving, serving, caring for one another,
dying to self so others can rise - like in parenting.
So a key way to read the gospels is to ask Jesus what
does he have in mind?
Answers sacrifice, dying to self, to create family,
community, and not have division.
CONCLUSION
In the meanwhile we are often divided and Christ wants
communion.
We’re here - the mass of us different people - to be
united on the basics.
Myself and another priest once gave a parish mission in
upstate New York.
Like today’s second reading, the parish was divided.
There were different groups - angry at each other.
Some were liberal; some were conservative - some were
charismatics - some made fun of the others.
The diocese put in two new priests - a big guy - whose
nick name we found out was “Big Foot” - a gentle giant - a quiet guy with a
great smile. The other guy was younger - thin - fast moving. I noticed he was
on the local fire and rescue squad, etc. etc. etc.
They were given 5 years to work on the healing of the
parish.
It happened - and the parish mission was to celebrate the
healing - both priests were to be changed and move on - and please God the
parish had the mind of Christ - much more than 5 years earlier.
_____________________
Painting on top: The Call of Peter and Andrew by Duccio.
