01 September 2006

The moral obligation to be a well-prepared fool

21st Week OT (Fri):1 Cor 1.17-25 and Matthew 25.1-13
Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation, University of Dallas

PODCAST!
How did you come to the faith? What fool brought you to Christ and persuaded you to sacrifice you life for the cause of the Gospel? How did he or she do it? How did they catch you, seduce you to say yes to God? Have you really ever thought about the trip you’ve taken to this spot? Have you ever really contemplated the steps, the one after another steps that brought you here? You didn’t just land here, you know; you didn’t just tumble out of the sky, land on your feet, brush off and find yourself a Christian! If you haven’t given much thought to how you got here, I suggest you do. Start by asking yourself this question: what fool told me about Jesus?

Yes, I said “fool.” What fool told you about Jesus? Paul is clear in his letter to the Corinthians, “For since in the wisdom of God the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith.” In other words, God, in His wisdom, decided to make Himself known to us in the foolish proclamation of the gospel, the foolish preaching of his disciples and not through the wisdom of the world. Those who are fools enough to believe the scandal of the cross, those brought to Life by the Holy Spirit, those whose mouths are stuffed with the Word—not a human eloquence but holy fluency—these are the ones who tell us about Jesus and we who believe their witness and have faith are saved. Not with wondrous signs. Not with worldly wisdom. But with a living, breathing faith that batters dark doubt and seduces the stoniest heart.

Who melted your icy refusal to listen to the Word? Who broke the seal on your lips, lips that now say AMEN and LORD? Who pushed you out of the darkness into the light? I ask b/c you need to give thanks. This is no so much about self-understanding as it is about lifting up the gift of gratitude and praise—given to us by God—and offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving for the fool who told you about Jesus. Let them benefit from a small offering of praise. You are here now b/c they were not afraid to speak the Word given to them by the Holy Spirit. Their courage struck the spark that set your soul ablaze.

Now it’s your turn. The five wise virgins are prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom. Patient, well-groomed, rehearsed, and eager, they wait for him and benefit immediately from their readiness. For us, being ready and willing to give witness to Christ in our lives is how we prepare for the Bridegroom, it is how we work for his arrival. Certainly a large part of this readiness for us is our academic preparation, the time and energy we spend developing the divine gift of our mind. Whether your preparation is theological, philosophical, scientific, biological, economic, artistic, or literary, you prepare to witness of the foolishness of the Cross so long as you prepare knowing and believing that what you study—the subject of your intellectual preparation—is a revelation of God from God to you, to us for our holy progress.

We are, you are morally obligated to prepare your mind to serve the Lord by assiduous study, by faithful attention to His revelation in all the arts and sciences that He has gifted you to investigate and learn, and you are obligated to share the fruits of this study with us so that we may see and hear His wisdom with you. Your witness as students and teachers is the witness of the disciple, the faithful scholar in the School of Charity, apprenticed to Christ—you are excited to learn and excited to teach.

Prepare yourself then to be the fool who tells some dark soul about Christ. Prepare yourself in the wisdom of the Cross to be the lips and tongue of the Lord’s saving Word.

No comments:

Post a Comment