Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s superapostles!
Superapostles! Strange missionaries from unknown parts who came to Corinth with powers of persuasion far beyond those of regular apostles. Wolves in sheep’s clothing, disguised as bearers of the Gospel, wage a never ending battle for “truth,” “justice,” and the (in) correct Christian way!
Today, in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul warns his foundling church about those so-called “superapostles.”
Paul didn't claim his missionary efforts were superior to these so-called “superapostles” because of his greater success, his powers of persuasion, his relationship with the original twelve (which wasn’t very good) or even his startling commissioning on the Damascus road. It was superior because of what it all cost him:
- He was imprisoned, flogged, beaten and stoned. In all he had eight thrashings and each one was so severe that it could have cost him his life.
- The dangers of travel – in the city, on the backroads and at sea. He was shipwrecked three times. His journeys brought him one danger after another from crossing turbulent rivers to evading ever present bandits.
- Paul was both driven and sustained by praying and preaching that he was continually sleep deprived. He rarely found time or opportunity to practice his craft as a tent maker so he was often short of basic needs.
- Stress and anxiety. He worried about his foundling churches. These communities of believers distressed him when errors crept in and they were led astray. His love was that of a loving yet firm father who kept tabs on them, regularly sending Timothy, Silas and others to check on them.
Who are the so-called “superapostles” of our times? Unlike Kal-el from the planet Krypton, superapostles have no easily recognizable “S” on their chests. How can we know them?
Look for these signs: attacking the Holy Father (Pope Francis suffered this especially within the American church); labeling certain politicians as “chosen” or "anointed by God; claiming that their own piety is superior to that of others; upholding the so-called “prosperity gospel” (which is an abomination); demanding that the church focus on spiritual matters and leave temporal matters to their own devises; molding Jesus of Nazareth into their own image and likeness. And many more.
Perhaps the most practical way of all is to ask, “How do they match up against the Beatitudes, the very blueprint of the Kingdom of God?”
—Timothy J. Cronin