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Reflection: |
The missionary Paul is not describing
how he felt when he came to God, but how
he felt when he came before his fellow
Christians in Corinth. He was fearful
because the message he had decided to
bring to them was not based on facts and
reason, but on the power of God. How
would they respond to a message that was
based on spirit, rather than on logic?
Whenever I see the words fear and
trembling in the same sentence, I
think of the melancholy Danish
philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, whose
small book by the same name asserts that
when we are alone in the presence of an
all-powerful God, the only appropriate
response is fear and trembling.
Kierkegaard insists that the way to
accept God is not to be persuaded by
facts and reason, but to go as far as
reason can take us, and then to hurl
ourselves beyond reason into faith.
That is exactly what Paul did. He
hurled himself past logic into the
spiritual and spoke to the Corinthians
despite his fear and trembling. |