Enriched in every way

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 1: 1-9, St. Paul recalls the graces God gave him as an apostle of Christ Jesus, as willed by God, to serve the Church of Corinth, as well as the graces given to the members of the church, to us disciples of Christ.  All of us have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy.”  He reminds us that we have been “enriched in every way,” that we “are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The challenge is the waiting for and the making visible, by our actions, this revelation of the Lord in our personal lives.  This challenge to be one with the will of God is made difficult by the fact that we are vulnerable to Satan’s deceptive ways. We may think we are in sync with God and not be.  Our efforts  to be faithful to God’s way of being in this world are also challenged by the fact that we live in a nation that strives to be a god unto its own making. All around us, people seem to be carving “golden calves”  out of power, prestige, pleasure, popularity,  money, domination,  weapons of war, and the pursuit of ambitions that oppress the poor of this world. These ambitions can even lead to killing others (physically or  psychologically/spiritually crushing one inner spirit of hope, love and faith in oneself, in others, in God).    Our faithfulness to the graces Jesus wants to pour out upon us is tested in this crucible of “evil.” Will I allow the forces of evil or the grace of God to win out in my life? When the Son of Man comes, will I be distributing the food that supports life, that nurtures live, that sanctifies life? Will I be among the blessed that Jesus speaks about in today’s  Gospel, Mt 24: 42-51?