This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1 Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God. 2 I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ. 3 I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling

4 and what I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit, 5 so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Gospel, Luke 4:16-30

16 He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read, 17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:

18 The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.

20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.’ 22 And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’

23 But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself,” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own country.” ’24 And he went on, ‘In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.25 ‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, 26 but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia.27 And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured — only Naaman the Syrian.’

28 When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. 29 They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff, 30 but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.

We know from the Corinthian correspondence that Paul was not highly rated in Corinth as a preacher. In comparison with others perhaps especially with Apollos, he was thought to lack presence and eloquence. Here Paul turns that estimate to good use: he convinced them through the power of God rather than human skill. This means that their faith does not rest on the “human wisdom” which is the very quality Paul is attacking in this letter. He thinks that the Corinthians are being led astray by an arrogant over-estimate of their own wisdom and knowledge. After all, the gospel as the story of a crucified messiah, doesn’t offer much scope for worldly wisdom. Paul  insists that the gospel is not the dream topping for human wisdom, but rather a complete revaluation of it.

Luke’s gospel shows us Jesus declaring that his mission is to the poor, the afflicted and the oppressed. When his own townsfolk half-accept, half-patronise him as local boy made good, but could he please do some miracles for them, he suggests that by trying to fit him into their idea of a prophet, they may miss his ministry, while complete outsiders may receive it.

Both passages point to the human temptation of turning God’s truth in into a comfortable supplement to prevailing wisdom. Unfortunately, it’s more radical than that.