1/26/2014 – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 1 Corinthians – 1:10-13, 17

I had posted a homily earlier for this upcoming Sunday, the third Sunday in Ordinary TIme.  However, in reflection, I decided to write another homily on the second reading, with Paul addressing division within the community in Corinth.  

      We have some wonderful readings today, and in fact, originally I had written a homily for this weekend focusing on the 1^st reading from Isaiah and the Gospel from Matthew, but then parishioner told me that I had a great opportunity to focus as a homilist on the 2^nd reading today, since it seemed very relevant to some things going on in our parish.  Last Sunday, we heard the very beginning of the first letter Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth, as he told that community that they were sanctified in Christ, that they were called to holiness. Today, only a few verses further in the letter, we hear how this community was divided in a very tragic way.  In the first Century in the Ancient Mediterranean world, it mattered very much who you identified with – the family and tribe you belonged to; the power, wealth, and prestige attached to your family group; and the city you belonged to with its own laws and privileges.  Unity was found in the ancient world as one banded together against the neighboring family, city, and nation.  Thus, there would be differences and diversity in the community at Corinth, but Paul did not believe that those differences should cause division and discord when we belong to the one Body of Christ – that those differences are not what should bring us identity when we are united in Christ. When he wrote to another community – to the Church at Galatia – he told them that those differences did not matter, whether they be Greek or Jew, slave or free, circumcised or uncircumcised, male or female. To the Corinthians, however, Paul sees them claiming identity to different factions – to Paul, to Apollos, to Cephas. The Corinthians used these difference to divide, to label, to quarrel amongst each other.  Being members of the Body of Christ does not eliminate our differences, that’s for sure, but it puts them in a new context and a new light. Paul is not saying that we all need to be identical.  He later tells the faithful that God gives us different gifts, callings, and personalities that we all can use for the glory of God.  And that is the key – that we work together – that we use our differences to enrich our community and to make disciples rather than to divide, hurt, or quarrel.   

     This weekend actually ends a week-long commemoration that we have in our Catholic Church in which we pray for Christian Unity. We now all too well how Christianity is divided into different denominations and groups. We see this division even within our Catholic Church.  There is a joke that says one of the things God doesn’t know is how many different groups of Franciscans there are running around in the world. Also, Saturday of this weekend we celebrate the feast of the conversion of St Paul. While Paul had once been a terrible persecutor of Christians, he later became the passionate Apostle of the Gentiles, with the wish to see all brought to the table of Christ. However, we know all too well that Paul his disagreements with Peter, the leader of the band of Apostles.  Yet, Peter and Peter worked with each other; they worked together despite their differences to advance the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world.  Today, we pray that all of the different Christian denominations might one day become one.  And yet, to work for Christian unity throughout the world, we work not only with our brothers and sisters in Christ in the different Christian denominations in our city of Tupelo, but we begin by working for unity and solidarity right here in our parish of St James.  Our community here at St James is blessed with a great diversity in many different forms - diversity in cultural and ethnic groups, diversity in life experience and socio-economic groups, diversity of gifts, interests, and personalities.  You will hear different theological points-of-view here from different members of our parish.  Some of them might even seem daring or shocking compared to your own point-of-view.  The important thing is treat each other with dignity and respect in whatever conversations and discussions we have, with the Agape love and compassion that Pope Francis calls us to have when we reach out to others in faith.  The different voices in our parish – the different voices we have in our Church -  contribute to the diversity that characterizes the unity we have as Catholics, as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Let us never forget this, no matter how passionate we are about our own point-of-view.  Perhaps by hearing a point of view different than our own and engaging in these theological conversations in a healthy and positive way, our own faith may be enriched in a very profound way.  

     Paul asked the people of Corinth to transcend their differences to celebrate the unity they have in Christ, to be directed to the same mind and same purpose.  We are to unite to be missionaries for Christ, to proclaim his Gospel, to make disciples.  Division is to be avoided because Christ has called us together, into a body, to accomplish God's purpose in the world.