First Week of Advent
This week, the second reading is from 1 Corinthians 1:3-9.
Do you see the sheer brassy confidence St. Paul has in the promises of God? It’s exactly like St. Paul to talk this way – how could he not after the incredible encounter he had with Christ on the road to Damascus? Notice that he speaks of the gifts of God as things already received. In fact he gives thanks to God that the Christian community in Corinth has been “enriched in every way”. In the same way, God enriches us in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord are hardly things to be laid aside lightly, and it is easy to forget that they have already been given to us in our baptism!
