Homily for Thursday, Week 23 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
Week 23 of Ordinary Time

Sept. 10, 2026
1 Cor 8: 1-7, 11-13
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

Students from the Salesian school in
Saragossa, Spain, form a large heart full of joy (ANS)

“Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8: 1).

We’re familiar with Paul’s hymn to love in 1 Cor 13.  Here in ch. 8, he already gives us a hint of that.  He counsels his friends in the church at Corinth that love for their brothers and sisters is superior to their knowledge.

What knowledge?  That the pagan gods are nothing.  They don’t exist.  They’re phantoms of the Greek imagination.  So any sacrifice to them—to Zeus, Athena, or any of them—is offered to nothing; it’s not sacred; it’s meaningless.

But some Christians don’t grasp that knowledge.  They still think that eating meat that was supposedly consecrated to one of the gods ought not be consumed, whether purchased in the market or served at a pagan friend’s dinner.  In their eyes it would be sinful.

Those with knowledge know better.  But, Paul says, out of charity toward the sensitive consciences of their less knowledgeable brothers and sisters, they ought to refrain from eating such meat.  That’s love in practice.  That’s humility rather than knowledge inflated with pride.  Paul himself practices that restraint:  “If food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause my brother to sin” (8:13).

Paul is telling us to be sensitive to the consciences of our fellow Christians.  In a time of so many diverse opinions and styles of worship, devotions, doing penance, and living the Gospel day by day, it’s still wise and prudent advice.  “Love builds up” our brothers and sisters.