2026-09-02 - Do not turn the Church into a place of competition. Author: Fr. Camillus Nwaigwe
2nd of September 2026
Wednesday in the Twenty Second Week of Ordinary Time Year II
1Cor 3:1-9
Lk 4:38-44
One of the greatest dangers to the life of the Church is when service becomes competition.
In the *First Reading*, St. Paul discovers that the Christians in Corinth are divided: some identify themselves with Paul, others with Apollos. They have taken the servants of God and turned them into competing camps.
Paul corrects them: "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe." Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
This is deeply theological because the Church belongs to Christ, not to us. No priest owns a parish. No association owns the Church. No movement, choir, group or individual owns the work of God. We are all servants and instruments in the hands of the one Lord.
Unfortunately, competition can enter even into sacred things. We can compete over who is more influential, whose group is bigger, whose ministry attracts more people, who receives more recognition, or whose priest is more popular. Sometimes we are no longer happy when another person succeeds in serving God because we feel their success diminishes us.
But the Kingdom of God is not a competition in which another person's success becomes our defeat. If Christ is being preached, people are being helped, souls are being saved and God is being glorified, then we should rejoice.
The Gospel gives us the proper attitude. Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law, and her response to healing is service. She does not turn the grace she has received into a platform for personal glory. She uses her restored strength to serve others.
That is the Christian understanding of ministry: grace received must become service rendered. We are not blessed so that we can become superior to others; we are blessed so that we can become useful to others.
Therefore, in the Church, we do not compete for glory; we cooperate for the glory of God. Paul plants, Apollos waters, another person may harvest, but God gives the growth. The question is not, "Who is getting the credit?" The question is: "Is Christ being glorified?"
When we remember that, there will be less jealousy, less rivalry, less comparison and more genuine communion.
*God bless you*
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