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“Two Christians before the Judges”
by Niccolò Semitecolo, 1367 |
Readings for Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
How can any one of you with a case against another
dare to bring it to the unjust for judgment
instead of to the holy ones?
Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world?
If the world is to be judged by you,
are you unqualified for the lowest law courts?
Do you not know that we will judge angels?
Then why not everyday matters?
If, therefore, you have courts for everyday matters,
do you seat as judges people of no standing in the Church?
I say this to shame you.
Can it be that there is not one among you wise enough
to be able to settle a case between brothers?
But rather brother goes to court against brother,
and that before unbelievers?
Now indeed then it is, in any case,
a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another.
Why not rather put up with injustice?
Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?
Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers.
Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived;
neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves
nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers
will inherit the Kingdom of God.
That is what some of you used to be;
but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified,
you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God.
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Commentary on 1 Cor 6:1-11
St. Paul encourages the Christian community at Corinth to deal with litigious issues internally, rather than take their cases to the pagan courts. He asks why there are cases brought between members at all, proposing the same idea as Jesus in St. Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount: "But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.” (Matthew 5:39-43).
This passage concludes with a catalogue of sins that will result in a fall from grace (see also Romans 1:26-27; 1 Timothy 1:10). "In this list of sins, similar to that given in the previous chapter (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:10-11), St Paul explicitly teaches that those who commit these sins will not inherit the kingdom, that is, will not attain eternal salvation. The whole list is a kind of explanation of what "unrighteousness" means. Thus, not only those go against righteousness who wrongly go to law or defraud others: righteousness, justice, in the language of the Bible is equivalent to holiness and therefore is opposed to every kind of sin." [4]
However, the apostle points out that some of the members had been in just such a state before being washed clean in baptism.
CCC: 1 Cor 6:1 823; 1 Cor 6:9-10 1852, 2380; 1 Cor 6:10 2357, 2450; 1 Cor 6:11 693, 1227, 1452, 1695, 2813
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
R. (see 4) The Lord takes delight in his people.
Sing to the Lord a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord loves his people,
and he adorns the lowly with victory.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy upon their couches;
Let the high praises of God be in their throats.
This is the glory of all his faithful. Alleluia.
R. The Lord takes delight in his people.
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Commentary on Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b
Psalm 149 is a communal song of praise. This passage rejoices in God’s kingship, and invites the faithful to celebrate his saving works. We rejoice because God brings victory to the lowly and hope to the oppressed.
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Gospel: Luke 6:12-19
Jesus departed to the mountain to pray,
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground.
A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;
and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.
Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him
because power came forth from him and healed them all.
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Commentary on Lk 6:12-19
This passage is the call of the Twelve Apostles from St. Luke’s Gospel. It is noteworthy that Jesus begins this process with a prayer of discernment. He then names the Twelve (including Judas Iscariot who was replaced after his suicide). This important event extends Jesus' mission through these chosen ones (selected from the ranks of Jesus’ disciples: see Mark 3:14-15). This selection marked them with special authority (Matthew 10:1ff) and responsibility to transmit the gospel to the world. The Lord is conscious of establishing the “New Israel.” His selection of the “twelve” is symbolic of appointing new leaders of the twelve tribes of the Hebrew people who are rejecting him as Messiah.
In addition to giving the names, we are told that once the choice had been made, he immediately went on with his teaching and healing ministry with renewed vigor. All “wished to touch him” because of his power to heal mind and body. These concluding verses are a prelude to St. Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.”
CCC: Lk 6:12-16 1577; Lk 6:12 2600; Lk 6:19 695, 1116, 1504
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Reflection:
St. Paul continues to put flesh on his vision of the living Body of Christ, which is the Church. Today he tells the Corinthians something in a subtle way that the Lord said more dramatically. It comes down to the great paradox of discipleship, “Be in the world but separate from the world.” In this case, St. Paul is telling the community at Corinth that they need to settle disputes that occur in the community themselves, and not refer their complaints to the civil courts.
We can actually feel a little sorry for the Corinthian Christians. They must have been good people, or why would they have signed up for the difficult road that is Christianity in the first place? They did not have an active community model to be a part of, so they had to find their own way based upon what Paul left with them after he proclaimed his gospel to them. They live in a secular community that has a reputation of being very unsavory. Paul even says that some of them have past lives that are less than moral icons:
Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be.
Imagine trying to pull together a “God fearing” Christian community amid a secular community where the debauched and amoral sins in the above litany are present? Wait a second. All those things are fairly rampant in our secular community today. Yes, we can definitely identify with those ancient forerunners of our modern Church. The big difference is supposed to be that we have a codified body of teaching and examples that guide us.
It seems that we will always find ourselves forced to be somewhat counter-cultural. Christ’s teachings will never be popular with individuals who put their own interests in front of all else. Our model in dealing with this situation must be the Savior himself. He shows us that our constant attention must be on prayer and discernment, a delicate balancing act. How are we to know when to judge and not to? How are we to love a person who cannot change and repeatedly causes us or those we love pain?
Our prayer today is one of discernment. As Christ prayed before calling the Apostles to their great task, and as St. Paul prayed for those to whom he ministered, so we ask for God’s guidance, that we too might experience the peace that comes from placing things in the hands of the only one who can choose the right path for us.
Pax
[1] The picture used today is “Two Christians before the Judges” by Niccolò Semitecolo, 1367.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Letters of St. Paul, The Navarre Bible, Four Courts Press, 2003, p. 219.
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