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 Wednesday of 22^nd Week, Year II: reflection

Theme: Let us stop causing strife and division in our Christian Communities

Reading: 1 Cor. 3:1–9

Have we not gradually, joyfully and also shamelessly embraced the errors in Christian life that were condemned by St. Paul in today's first reading?

News of problems of jealousy, strife and division in the Church of Corinth was reported to St Paul. At the heart of these problems was that many Corinthian Christians started identifying themselves as followers of the people who preached the gospel of Christ to them rather than followers of Jesus who was preached to them.

Some claimed to belong to Paul, some to Apollos, and some others to other people who preached the good news to them. Thus, instead of focusing on Jesus who was preached to them, on worshipping Him, and on doing His will, these Corinthian Christians were more concerned with the personal qualities and charisma of their preachers, boasting about being followers of one who commanded the spirit more than the others or the one who performed more miracles than the others, while looking down on those whose missionary services did not attract the attention of the public.

St Paul rebuked them and charged them to realize that they were baptized in the name of Jesus, and not in the name of any of their preachers. He reminded them that both those who worked miracles and those who did other works that did not attract the attention of the public worked for the same God, and that only God granted growth to their efforts.

We live in an era in which many people, even those in the same church, proudly identify themselves not with the name of Jesus, who grants increase to the works of his servants, but with the chosen names of their 'powerful men and women of God' in order to show themselves as spiritually superior to their fellow Christians and, then, create divisions and strife. Some call themselves umu mbaka, umu ikuku, umu ebube mmuo nso, umu e dey work, umu ebuka zion, umu obimma, umu muoka, umu this and umu that.

Dear friends, in as much as it is a perfect idea to respect and identify with those who are helping us on this spiritual journey, St Paul urges us to always remember that we were not baptized in the names of these people and that we should always see and treat them as servants through whom we believed in God. When we elevate them to the position of demigods or start attaching our names to theirs rather than Jesus', we have started giving them the honour, praise and glory that belong to God.

May God's Spirit continue to help us to discern all spirits. Amen

Fr Isaac C. Chima