READINGS AT MASS
Isa. 8:23-9:3
Ps. 27
1 Cor. 1:10-13,17
Mt. 4:12-23
Theme: WAS PAUL CRUCIFIED FOR YOU?
Dear friends in Christ, N'wokafu YESU KRISTO...
Dearly beloved in Christ, today, we are confronted with one of the profound questions in the Bible - misguided allegiance. In his letter to the Christian community in Corinth, as we read in our second reading, Paul set out to address a serious problem of division and divided allegiance.
The individual members of the congregation started identifying themselves with the personalities that ministered to them. The Gentiles had a soft spot for Paul and began feeling that they belonged to him. The Greeks, however, felt more comfortable with Apollos (who was a Greek by birth) and began to claim him as one of their own. Also aligned to Cephas (Peter) were a group Jews, who still upheld the Jewish tradition.
In this error and misguided solidarity in the body of Christ, Paul asked the time testbed rhetorical question, “Was Paul Crucified for you?”
Sometimes, all we have to do as Christians and humanity at large, and more especially in this generation, is to step back and remind ourselves about who exactly was crucified for us. It is definitely not the human personalities or the religious functionaries on whom we are becoming so reliant to the extent of forgetting about God, ourselves, and what we truly are about as Christians.
The apparent false amnesia of this generation about the cost that was paid for our redemption is a complete betrayal of Christ. We, like the Corinthians, need to be reminded again and again, with this thought-provoking question, that no human being was crucified for us.
Beloved, no one, but Jesus Christ alone, was crucified for you. He alone made the ultimate sacrifice that you might live. Never forget this!
PRAYER
Almighty ever-living God, may we never forget the One who died on the cross that we might have life. Amen.
May God bless you.
-Rev. Fr. Kenneth Debre
Sunday, January 22, 2023.
Holy Rosary Parish, Hohoe
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