Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
In the first reading, Paul writes that he and another preacher, Apollos, have become a spectacle. A spectacle refers to something unusual, notable, or entertaining. In a way, Paul suggests that we are to be Christian spectacles by emphasizing, “We are fools on Christ’s account.” He compares his condition to the Corinthians by describing himself as “weak” and “in disrepute” and the Corinthians as “strong” and “held in honor” in order to remind them to focus on Christ’s message and to be a witness to the Reign of God, a place where present conditions are reversed. He gives examples in his letter, “when ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently.”
In the Gospel, Jesus and his disciples become a spectacle when the Pharisees question him as to why his disciples were picking heads of grain and eating them. As AJ Grimm wrote in a previous reflection, “Jesus did not come to abide by the laws of humans but rather to show us the way to God.”
What does this mean for us today? Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, founder of the Marianists, wrote in a letter that we Christians are to be a “spectacle of a people of saints.” What does it mean to be a “spectacle of saints”? Through our actions and interactions with others, we are to show to the world the goodness of God and the way to God. In a hostile and divided world, we are called to be welcoming and inclusive. In a world that relies on material wealth and self-dependence, we are called to not put our self-worth in our possessions and depend on God for our needs. Being a spectacle of saints implies that we will be challenged and called to go out of our comfort zone and that we need each other to be a spectacle together just like what Jesus’ disciples and the Corinthians tried to do in the first century. What holds us back? What do we need to let go of? I pray that we may receive from God the strength and humility we need to be a spectacle of saints.
—Sr. Emily Sandoval, FMI