To be carnal, but to have a true vision according to God, not according to our flesh.
When St. Paul speaks of flesh, he's not just talking about our bodies, but about what is human in general.
The scripture speaks of all flesh by this meaning, all mortals, all human beings.
And so, whether it's the spiritual part of us or the bodily part of us, all of that can be merely flesh if it is not enlightened by the Spirit of God, if it is not in a spirit of faith.
And so, St. Paul is, in a way, saddened that he can't speak to the Corinthians as spiritual people,
as people who truly walk by faith, who see everything in a vision of faith.
And in part, this is the fact that he has to give them milk, not solid food.
He has to treat them like babies.
He can't give them the solid food of mature Christians.
He can't speak of the spiritual meaning of scripture.
He can't exhort them to sanctity.
He has to be constantly trying to root out base vices.
And so, you know, this is a disappointment, and one sign of this, the one that he points to in particular in this first reading is the fact that there are divisions.
There's jealousy among the Corinthians, that some of them say that they're with Paul, and others say that they're with Apollos.
And this is a lack of faith, a lack of a vision of faith, because who is Paul?
Who is Apollos?
These are ministers of God.
You know, Paul is a minister of God.
Paul is not, has not come to the Corinthians to, in order to find followers for himself, but to find followers for Christ.
And so also Apollos.
So if Paul came and sowed, that is, preached the word, and Apollos came and watered, that
is, he baptized them, that then neither, neither one did this for himself, but both did it
for God, as instruments of God, as ministers of God.
And so they need to see God who gives the growth, God without whom the preaching would
be in vain, and it wouldn't convert anyone, if it was just words, and there was not the
power of the Spirit behind it, if there was not the grace of God united to that preaching.
They need to, to see, you know, Christ in, as the one who baptizes when the minister
baptizes.
So it's not Apollos who baptized them, but it's Christ who baptized them.
That's the way the sacraments work.
And so.
In this way, the ministers are one, because they are all servants of Christ, they are
all expressions of Christ.
And so what we need to attach ourselves to is not to one or another minister of Christ,
but to Christ himself, to God himself.
And this is what a true vision of faith will do for us.
And St. Paul also, you know, speaking here about ministers, we can get some lessons for
the, for the ministers as well.
You know, that they are indeed God's co-workers, and they will receive wages in proportion
to their labor.
And about this labor of the, the, of the ministers, we have an excellent example in the gospel
where we have a sort of important day in the life of Jesus that gives us sort of an over,
an overview of what he did.
Now, he healed people, he healed particular people, in this case, Simon's mother-in-law
and also many other people.
And so, you know, we see Jesus speaking to people that day, and he tried to, to essentially
preach the, the Word of God, that he had done actually prior to these healings in the synagogue.
And so, you know, Jesus is speaking the Word of God, calling people to follow God, and
we see Jesus also at prayer.
You know, it tells us that at daybreak, he left and went to a deserted place.
He went to, to an isolated place where he could be alone and pray.
You know, it tells us that at daybreak, he left and went to a deserted place. He went to, to an isolated place where he could be alone and pray.
You know, it tells us that at daybreak, he left and went to a deserted place. He went to, to an isolated place where he could be alone and pray, and, and commune with his Heavenly Father.
Because the, our prayer, our, that is, our, our preaching would be nothing without prayer to sustain it.
And, you know, the crowds, unfortunately, are sort of attached to, to Jesus as well.
These are carnal people who don't yet have a vision of faith, so they want Jesus for themselves.
You know, as, as people may, may attach themselves to, to Paul or Paulus or some other minister.
And they don't see that he has to go to, to all.
That his, his mission is not merely in that one place, but his mission is to preach the, the kingdom of God all over Galilee and in Judea as well.
And so, let us try to, to have this vision of faith, this vision of faith which sustained St. Joseph and sustained Our Lady.
This vision of faith with, which we need in order to, to grow as Christians, to see things as they really are.
You know, this is,
this is one of the, the essentials of, of being a Christian, is to have this vision of faith, to see the way things truly are in faith and not merely the way they may appear.
Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Amen.
Amen.