Homily for Tuesday, 23d Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
23d Week of Ordinary Time

Sept. 6, 2022
1 Cor 6: 1-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

St. Paul: Cloister of St. Paul

Outside the Walls, Rome

St. Paul addresses the Christians of Corinth—outrageously sinful and idolatrous Corinth—as God’s holy ones, as saints.  “You’ve had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11).

But some members of the church haven’t been acting like saints.  Yesterday’s reading concerned a particularly egregious offender whom Paul instructed the church to expel.

Many more, however, are falling short, apparently.  They’re forgetting who they are, people washed clean of their past, brothers and sisters of one another in Christ.  Some are defrauding others, who seek redress not among trusted brothers but from the pagan law courts.  It’s scandalous to reveal to the pagans their failure—“see how the Christians love one another” doesn’t obtain; even worse, they lie to and cheat one another.

Contemporary church scandals—nothing new.

Paul reminds his children in Christ that they were once serious sinners, but they were washed clean in Baptism.  Reverting to their past behavior, vices that remain ever attractive to our fallen nature, means disinheritance by the Father:  “the unjust won’t inherit the kingdom of God” (6:19).  Paul’s catalog of the unjust includes a wide range of offenders.  Members of the Church, ourselves included, are always susceptible to those offenses, among others—less so, I suppose, at St. Joseph.

Paul concludes this passage with a reminder of their initial conversion, effectively challenging them to continue their conversion.  As must we all, still striving to put aside greed, slander, unchaste desires, and to live as brothers “in the Spirit of our God.”