The Brothers and Sisters of Penance of St. Francis
The Divine Will

May 22, 2005

The great mystery of God’s Will

Filed under: Divine Will — Adele Maria @ 5:56 pm

Trinity Sunday Divine Office:
From the first letter of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians 2: 1-16

As for myself, brothers, when I came to you I did not come proclaiming God’s testimony with any particular eloquence or “wisdom”. No, I determined that while I was with you I would speak of nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. When I came among you it was in weakness and fear, and with much trepidation. My message and my preaching had none of persuasive force of “wise” argumentation, but the convincing power of the Spirit. As a consequence, your faith rests not on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.

There is, to be sure, a certain wisdom which we express among the spiritually mature. It is not a wisdom of this age, however, nor of the rulers of this age, who are men headed for destruction. No, what we utter is God’s wisdom: a mysterious, a hidden wisdom. God planned it before all ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew the mystery; if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Of this wisdom it is written: “eye has not seen, ear has not heard,

Nor has it so much as dawned on man

What God has prepared for those who love him?”

Yet God has revealed this wisdom to through the Spirit. The Spirit scrutinizes all matters, even the deep things of God. Who, for example, knows a man’s innermost self but the man’s own spirit within him: Similarly, no one knows that lies at the depth of God but the Spirit of God.

The Spirit we have received is not the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit, helping us to recognize the gifts he has given us. We speak of these, not in words of human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, thus interpreting spiritual things in spiritual terms.

The natural man does not accept what is taught by the Spirit of God. For him, that is absurdity. He cannot come to know such teaching because it must be appraised in a spiritual way. The spiritual man, on the other hand, can appraise everything, though he himself can be appraised by no one. For, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

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