2nd Sunday of the Year (C)

Readings: Is. 62:1-5, 1 Cor. 12:4-11, Jn. 2:1-11

By all accounts, the ancient city of Corinth in the 1st century after Christ was a rather wild place. Located between two seaports, Corinth was a center for commerce and tourism, and, as tends to happen in such places, the city gained a reputation far and wide for its shameless immorality, making it something like the eastern Mediterranean’s version of Las Vegas. And, if the analogy holds, then this “Sin City” would seem to be an unlikely place to find God. Back then, they might have said: What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth.

But, in fact, Paul’s first letter to the people of God in Corinth proves that this is not the case. Paul had founded the Church in Corinth probably around the year 51, and as best as we can tell, he most likely wrote this letter to them about five years later, in the year 56. As with all of Paul’s letters, what he writes is in response to practical issues within that specific Christian community. So, when in today’s second reading, Paul talks about the different spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit, he’s not giving an abstract and speculative reflection, but rather addressing a real problem among the Corinthian Christians. 

Some of these gifts or charisms, as we call them, are quite dramatic: the gifts of healing, mighty deeds, prophecy, discernment of spirits, and speaking in tongues and interpreting them. One can imagine how such odd (frankly, weird) behaviors could have raised concern and caused division within the community. It’s also clear that Paul wasn’t talking about one or two people, rather this seems to have been something of an epidemic phenomenon of strange and disturbing supernatural activity. If you’ve ever been clicking through the channels late at night and found one of those Pentecostal prayer services with people being ‘slain by the Spirit’, you have some sense of what was going on in ancient Corinth and why Paul, this community’s founder, felt the need to intervene. 

But Paul’s intervention does not rebuke these bizarre activities but rather shows how they are gift from God to serve the greater whole. Paul writes: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit” and “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” In other translations, these gifts are given “for the common good” (NRSV) or “for the edifying the Church” (KJV).  

So, in Corinth, a den of shameless immorality and the most unlikely place to find God does God, in fact, act, and act in the most spectacular ways. God does not give up on the people of Corinth, but he doubles down and sends his Spirit in extraordinary fashion to manifest his love and power to fortify his people and build up his Church. By the power of the Spirit, the people of Corinth are able to work miracles, heal, prophecy, speak in tongues and interpret them. 

We might think that’s all well and good for the people of ancient Greece, but what about us? How can Paul’s words addressed to the people of Corinth 2000 years ago relate to us in 2022? Clearly, between then and now, something has changed: people who speak in tongues are few and far between, and those who work miracles are saints, not ordinary sinners like you and me. Does the fact that we don’t see these same charisms mean that God is not at work in our world, our city, our parish? 

Not at all! Paul tells us that “one and the same Spirit produces all of these [gifts], distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.” Up and down the centuries, God has poured out his Spirit to his people in each generation in many and various ways for the sake of the common good and the edification of the Church. Never has God abandoned his people or ceased to work through them to manifest his closeness and love. What God does in one place or at one time might be dramatically different than what he does in another, but in both, it is the same God who pours his same Spirit into the hearts of the faithful to renew the face of the earth. 

This was the conviction of the Second Vatican Council, when the bishops of the Church taught that there exists, among all God’s people, a universal call to be holy. In the words of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Thus it is evident to everyone that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (LG, 40). Later this month, we’ll celebrate the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, who nearly 350 years before the Second Vatican Council taught the very same truth, as he wrote in his Introduction to the Devout Life, “It is an error, nay more, a very heresy, to seek to banish the devout life from the soldier’s guardroom, the mechanic’s workshop, the prince’s court, or the domestic hearth” (I.3). Holiness isn’t simply a matter for the priests and religious; it’s a matter for everyone, of every walk of life. And the very success of the mission of the Church depends upon everyone, of every walk of life, to step up to the task. 

My brothers and sisters, that includes you, as it includes me. We don’t live in Corinth or Las Vegas, but Baltimore certainly has its problems; so does Homeland, or from wherever else you’ve come this morning. Our families, our friends have problems. We have problems. Have we let those problems convince us that God has given up on us or altogether left us to our own devices? If God could work in spectacular ways even in Corinth, what could he here, in your life and in mine, if only we were open to receive the Spirit he desires to pour into our hearts. We (most likely) won’t speak in tongues or heal people, but God will, unquestionably, transform us by his grace and give us new hearts to love with the love of his own heart––a love which alone can conquer selfishness, sin, and even death itself, in short, every problem we could possibly face. 

We must all step up to the task of holiness. It may seem that we have nothing to give, but as the Lord transformed plain and simple water into wine of the finest vintage and delighted the people of Cana, so will he do the same to us, through us, and for us, his people gathered here. May we open our hearts this morning and invite God’s Spirit to be poured into our hearts, to fill us with the gifts we need to live the life to which he calls us, and be poured out in a service of love to our neighbors, families, friends, and each other, as the conduits through which God’s Spirit of love renews the face of the earth.

Cathedral of Mary Our Queen - January 16, 2021