Homily for Tuesday, Week 23 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
23d Week of Ordinary Time

Sept. 10, 2024
1 Cor 6: 1-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“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).

Baptism image (St. Callistus Catacombs)

St. Paul recalls the pre-conversion history of his disciples in Corinth and laments that some of them mistreat one another yet.  Then he reminds them that they’ve been washed clean and made holy, implying that they ought to live in the holiness bestowed upon them by the Spirit of God.

All of us come to religious life with a history, and we make more history in our communities—trying to live as brothers “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Sometimes by God’s grace we’ve been good brothers, touched by the power that comes forth from Jesus, as we hear in today’s gospel (Luke 6:19); and sometimes we haven’t been such good brothers.  “You inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers” (1 Cor 6:8), Paul writes.

But the one who has sanctified us and justified us doesn’t leave us.  The Spirit of the Lord Jesus remains and continues his work.  Jesus “called his disciples to himself” (Luke 6:13).  He called us to himself—that we might praise God “in the assembly of the faithful” (Ps 149:1) and that we might love our brothers and assist them in our common pursuit of life in Jesus Christ.