Readings:
1 Corinthians 5:1-8
Luke 6:6-11
Reflection:
While our first reading today comes from what is called ‘Paul‘s 1st letter to the Corinthians’, it is actually his second letter. Paul has heard that the community he founded is falling apart -infighting, elites, misuse of authority, power and politics and divisions, sexual and gender issues, theological wars, jealousies, snobbery, legal battles. Sounds vaguely familiar? So Paul writes to the community,
This, Paul’s first letter, is now lost. But it landed like a bomb in Corinth. The community in Corinth were not happy. Up in arms, they denigrated Paul, questioning his credentials. And so Paul followed it up with the letter we are reading at the moment. -If they thought the first letter was harsh, well… !!! This letter contains some of Paul’s best quotes, and it is his most honest confronting of destructive behaviour and attitudes that serve only to crucify Christ all over again.
Paul’s answer is raw honesty. He confronts them with their behaviours, tells them to own the guilt and shame; and to start living Eucharist, start making Eucharist a way of life. Stop using the Eucharist as a cover, a pretence that everything is fine in the Body of Christ. Not when it so obviously isn’t, that even the pagans are scandalised by the Christian’s behaviour
Be who you claim to be, Paul says, and stop the mockery. Clean up your act. And remember if tough love means calling out bad behaviour, this doesn’t mean confronting others with their failings, it means being honest about your own. If you claim to be the Body of Christ, then start behaving as if you are.
In today’s letter, Paul takes no prisoners. If Paul were to write a letter to us in the church today, I wonder what it would look like.
Fr.Tom McDonough CP, Community Leader and Parish Priest at St.Paul’s Glen Osmond