This Wednesday evening begins five lectures by Fr. Ambrose Vaz in the letters of Paul to the Corinthians. What never fails to impress me is how fresh scripture is every time I glance over it... and even more when I study it. What it does for me is to remind me of how little I know and how small I am. And the really neat thing about it is the more I study, the more I realise how much I do not know! I use the word 'neat' because this keeps me thirsting... I know it's a good thing and I pray that it happens for the rest of my life! :O)
Only a few chapters into the session and I was already reflecting on how powerful and rich Paul's pastoral letters are! It got to a point where I almost teared because I knew the messages were written to speak to me. O how more personal can that get? ;P
One such verse that hit me hard is from 1 Cor 2:4-5:
"My speech and proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God." As explained by Fr Vaz, I am reminded again of not carrying out tasks because of the good feelings it exudes, but because I know and believe it's God's wonderfully-never-go-wrong recipes! For example, I forgive so as not to be commended by others, but because God teaches so. Period. So what if I get negative responses from the person I forgave and the people around for thinking what a stupid thing to do? Do I still rely on God's recipes? Of course this can be verified over time, but when placed in a pressured situation, how will I act?
This is just one of the many verses from the evening's session.
Thank you, St Paul, pray for us!
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