Fourth Week of Pentecost Homily Help
Fourth Week of Pentecost – SUNDAY – JESUS REJOICES IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
Reading: 1Cor 2:11-16 Gospel: Lk 10:21-24
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1 Corinthians 2:11-16
Among human beings, who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms. Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Biblical Exegesis
[2:13] In spiritual terms: the Spirit teaches spiritual people a new mode of perception (1 Cor 2:12) and an appropriate language by which they can share their self-understanding, their knowledge about what God has done in them. The final phrase in 1 Cor 2:13 can also be translated “describing spiritual realities to spiritual people,” in which case it prepares for 1 Cor 2:14–16.
[2:14] The natural person: The Corinthians desire a sort of wisdom dialogue or colloquy with Paul; they are looking for solid, adult food, and he appears to disappoint their expectations. Paul counters: if such a dialogue has not yet taken place, the reason is that they are still at an immature stage of development.
[2:15] The spiritual person…is not subject to judgment: since spiritual persons have been given knowledge of what pertains to God (1 Cor 2:11–12), they share in God’s own capacity to judge. One to whom the mind of the Lord (and of Christ) is revealed (1 Cor 2:16) can be said to share in some sense in God’s exemption from counseling and criticism.
II. Old Testament References
[2:16] Wisdom 9:13; Isaiah 40:13.
For who knows God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the Lord intends? (Wisdom 9:13)
Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
or instructed him as his counselor? (Isaiah 40:13)
Luke 10:21-24
At that very moment he rejoiced (in) the holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Biblical Exegesis
[10:21] Revealed them to the childlike: a restatement of the theme announced in Lk 8:10: the mysteries of the kingdom are revealed to the disciples.
II. Catechism of the Catholic Church
1083 The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy as a response of faith and love to the spiritual blessings the Father bestows on us is thus evident. On the one hand, the Church, united with her Lord and “in the Holy Spirit,”(5) blesses the Father “for his inexpressible gift(6) in her adoration, praise, and thanksgiving. On the other hand, until the consummation of God’s plan, the Church never ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts and to beg him to send the Holy Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful, and upon the whole world, so that through communion in the death and resurrection of Christ the Priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will bring forth the fruits of life “to the praise of his glorious grace.”(7)
(5) Luke 10:21
(6) 2 Corinthians 9:15
(7) Ephesians 1:6
2603 The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes.(48) His exclamation, “Yes, Father!” expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father’s “good pleasure,” echoing his mother’s Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father.(49)
(48) Mt 11,25-27 Lc 10,21-23
(49) Ep 1,9
Sample Homily:
Paul is clear with the Corinthians and with Christians throughout the ages that true wisdom is of God, and is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Paul is also clear that the difference between those who are redeemed in Christ and those who do not believe, is the very presence of the Holy Spirit and true wisdom working within the believer. Making reference to the rhetorical question of Isaiah, he says; “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” For Isaiah the prophet, no mortal man or woman can have God’s wisdom and knowledge, but for St. Paul this is true except for those who have been given the “mind of Christ,” that is, men and women of faith. Luke tells us that rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, Jesus reveals to his disciples the unity of the Holy Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit equally share the divine life, and Jesus tells his disciples that kings and prophets have longed to know the fullness of divine truth that is now revealed to them. We too are blessed to be recipients of faith in Christ, and to be given the “mind of Christ”. We must also remember that with truth comes responsibility, we must not put this light of truth under a bushel basket as Scripture says, but we must let it shine like a beacon on a hill. In other words we are called to share the truth, to evangelize in thought, words, and deeds. Our calling is great, our truth is perfect, and our power and wisdom comes not from ourselves but from the Holy Spirit.