Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 71:1-14; John 12:20-36)
Reflection: When the panelists (the three of us) at a forum in Novi Sad were asked why we chose Christianity, I didn’t have to think much. I replied that it was the most foolish choice of all! No sane person who dares to start a movement that aspires to become a world religion would choose the narrative of the early Church and do it their way. This kind of foolishness should be a characteristic of every person who has chosen Christianity.
Paul summarizes this foolishness of the Christian faith in two statements. The first is that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. Paul was familiar with wisdom. Wisdom was highly valued in Jewish culture. He also knew Greek wisdom. He quoted their poets and debated with philosophers from this tradition. He also knew Roman’s superior state and imperial wisdom and genius. He was a learned man. He absorbed this knowledge and skillfully used it. But after he met the Risen One, he realized that the foolishness of the cross is material that is impossible to master. It is impossible to process this material. Thinking about it will defeat any logic, i.e. logic cannot encompass the boundaries of the magnitude of God’s foolishness. Why? Because the cross, the symbol of Jesus’ entire life, is a symbol of God’s self-denial/self-emptying – kenosis. As N.T. Wright wrote somewhere: “The pre-existent Son did not regard equality with God as a release from the task (redemption) which can only be accomplished by going through suffering and death, but as a unique qualification for its accomplishment.” Paul finally realized that God is the one who gives himself for the world, who renounces himself and takes the risk, and that Jesus is the mediator of this divine act. Look at the world around you…look at the news…read the newspapers…what is worth risking for, giving oneself up for, sacrificing oneself for. In our eyes, giving one’s life for this world is very foolish. It is so foolish to give oneself up for a neighbor, let alone an enemy.
The second characteristic of the foolishness of the Christian faith is that God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Paul was a man who knew human (especially Roman) power, applied it, and even appealed to it, but at the same time, he personally experienced its cruel power. Writing to the Church in Corinth, he tries again to open the eyes of the Christian community, which is slowly returning to that old form of existence in which human wisdom and power are elevated to a pedestal and become a means of achieving goals.
I imagine the great apostle of faith in his thoughts, for who knows how many times, thinking about the not-so-distant event in Jerusalem. During Holy Week, human power will tighten the noose around an innocent man from Nazareth. Anyone normal could know that such power would prevail. He will be punished with the most brutal death of that time – crucifixion – the ultimate demonstration of the power of the, so far, greatest empire in the history of mankind. But there is something that no one sane, at that moment, could know. In less than forty-eight hours, only from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, from the lips of some women, later also men, the news began to spread: “He has risen!” Moreover, at the end of this letter, Paul will remember that Christ, after showing himself to his disciples, also showed himself to him. Paul was fully aware of the power of the empire and this world, but he was fully convinced that Christ’s weakness had overcome the empire and this world.
The church is always tempted to be wise, sharp, and efficient, imitating the world, wrapping the mystery of the gospel in human thinking that can provide security and convincing conclusions that will withstand the test of worldly criticism. However, it has been shown that when the church imitates the wisdom of the world, it forgets its call to the folly of the gospel; it becomes prudent and calculating in a way that mocks the folly of its own truth.
Prayer: Today, pray the words of the apostle Paul from the letter to Romans 1,16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”