August 31, 2018

1 Cor 1:17-25

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.

Jesus present in our suffering

What does Jesus on the cross have to do with me? The cross is a sign of defeat, of pain, suffering and death. But because it’s Jesus on that cross, and because of what comes after the cross (i.e., Resurrection), the cross means something else. It is now a sign that our own defeat, suffering, pain and death are redeemed and made holy. Our disappointment and loneliness are part of the Christian life – are in fact sanctified and holy parts of our Christian life – by the very fact that Jesus, the Holy One, is with us in those experiences on the cross. Even His resurrected body carries his wounds, so there has to be something holy in them, and in ours!

Am I able to feel Jesus’ presence with me in my suffering?

—Ken Weber is a University Minister in the Department of Student Life and Ministry at Loyola University New Orleans.

Prayer

Lord, comfort me in my disappointments and setbacks; grace me with the knowledge that these sufferings are sanctified by your suffering on the cross, and that resurrection with you awaits.

—Ken Weber