Time to move on from Baby Food.
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshly people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now, for you are still of the flesh. While there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not of the flesh, and walking according to the manner of man? Whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely men?
What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor. For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
The above passage from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was the first reading at Mass this past Wednesday. It is quite the challenging letter. For us, it is important to take to heart these hard teachings and exhortations. Paul is writing the Corinthians to encourage them to move into a deeper relationship with God and to move into a more well rounded Spiritual Life.
I see this passage as applicable to us today in a number of ways.
First, there is no shortage of people who come to me to ask for help with the Spiritual Life, making claims that their Faith is weak, that God feels distant, that their pray feels dry. Whenever I am presented with a person making such statements, I ask them a series of questions: when was the last time you went to Confession? Do you attend Mass regularly and devoutly receiving the Eucharist worthily? Do you pray? Do you not only read, but meditate on Sacred Scripture?
Second, it seems that a favorite conversion for many Catholics to have is to complain and spread word about how the Pope, bishop, some cardinal, priest, or lay minister is evil and not doing things the way that they, themselves, would do it.
Third, the world herself is far from God, the world is in need of people who take their faith seriously and are ready to lead new people more deeply into a new relationship with God.
Now is the time to move out of spiritual infancy and to grow into a mature Spiritual Life. We need Holy Men and Women who take the Faith seriously enough that it changes them and the world around them. Take seriously the need for staying close to the Sacraments. Confession is so important because, among many things, it clears away from our eyes the mud of sin that prevents us from seeing God, it removes the clay from our ears that prevents us from hearing God. The Eucharist has to become the center of our lives. When the Eucharist is the center of our lives, it is, by default the guiding light for every decision I make, from what I do for entertainment, to the company I keep, to how I schedule vacations, to which jobs I consider, to how I speak, to what I schedule. The Eucharist has to become my everything. When I take my life seriously and move past Spiritual baby formula and onto solid foods, I am concerned with my relationship to God and helping others with their relationship with God. I put aside silly arguments about which people in the Church I align with. Here is a little secret, we priests, and the bishops who govern us are sinful men; priests, bishops, and popes of the past were sinful men; the priests, bishops and popes of the future will be sinful men. However we are simply the men that guide the Church, primarily through the Sacraments. We need to be reminded that we are not in the Church because of Father Nicholas, Pope Francis, Archbishop Rodi, or any other cleric; we are in the Church because it is the Church of Jesus Christ. So let us put aside childish things and take more seriously the Sacraments and our relationship with God Almighty. The sake of the world depends on it!