Today’s first reading (1 Corinthians 4:6-15) continues yesterday’s passage. Paul has been describing himself and Apollos as stewards or managers of God’s message. He argues that the focus should be totally on the message rather than on the messengers. The Corinthians should not be taking sides and pitting one messenger against the other, accepting one and rejecting the other. They should keep to “what is written”.
The Corinthians themselves can only make judgements based on the teaching they were given, and they should not act as if their ideas were their own. Paul says: “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings!”
There is a strong element of irony and sarcasm here as Paul points out their arrogance coupled with their spiritual poverty, in comparison with those by whom they were taught. He wishes it could be otherwise so Paul could share in their riches, but the sad fact is that those riches do not exist.
There is more irony as Paul mockingly compares his position with the imagined superiority of the Corinthians: “We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are sensible people in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.” He reminds them that he comes from the lower strata of their society. He is neither learned nor powerful nor influential.
He then gives a litany of the trials and hardships that he and his companions have to gone through to fulfil their mission of proclaiming Christ to the world: “To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are naked and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands.” Even so, they follow the teaching and example of their Master, turning the other cheek to all the abuse showered on them: “When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.” He seems to imply that some of this abuse comes from the Corinthians themselves.
Paul is saying all this not to shame or condemn them, but “to admonish you as my beloved children”, and to help them realize the real meaning of the Gospel that they have been called on to embrace. They may have “ten-thousand guardians in Christ”, but they should remember they have only one father, only one person who originally established the Gospel among them and that person is Paul: “Indeed, in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel.”
All too often we hear Church leaders and pastors being criticized, sometimes with justification. But we do need to remember that, from top to bottom, we are a Church of flawed people. We should keep in mind what Paul says—namely, that what we really need to focus on is the Message rather than the messengers. Some people abandon the Message based on the behavior of one or two messengers. Sometimes this is a rationalization for not accepting the Message. We might remember Jesus’ words about being too conscious about the splinter in the eye of the other while there is a large beam of wood in our own. Messengers have had their shortcomings since the very beginning. Just look at Peter and Paul. The Gospel, too, is addressed equally to all and the same fidelity is required of every member and not more from some and less from others.
In our Gospel reading (Luke 6:1-5) we have yet another confrontation between Jesus and some Pharisees. Following immediately, as it does, after the parable about the patch and the wineskins (Luke 5:33-39), it confirms what Jesus said about the gap between the traditionalists and his vision.
He and his disciples were walking through a cornfield, and it was a Sabbath day. The disciples were plucking heads of grain, separating the grain from the chaff by rubbing them in their hands and eating them. The Sabbath did not forbid walking short distances, and custom did not forbid “gleaning”, that is, taking grain left over by reapers. It did forbid reaping and threshing. Only a very narrow-minded interpretation could have described plucking as reaping and rubbing between the hands as threshing, but that seems to be what is happening here.
Some in the crowd asked: “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus answers very quickly and to the point. He makes no reference to the narrow-minded legalism that his critics reveal, the “old wineskin” mentality. Instead, he throws at them an incident from the past. David and his men were hungry, so they went into the house of God and, with his approval, ate the holy bread of the Presence which only the priests were allowed to eat (1 Samuel 21:6).
As king, David put himself above the law. Both David’s and the disciples’ actions involved godly men doing something forbidden by law. However, it is never a violation of a law to do what is good and to save life (eating for survival). In that sense both David and the disciples were within the spirit, though not the letter, of the law.
Jesus, too, is above the law: The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus has the authority to overrule man-made laws concerning the Sabbath, particularly as interpreted by the Pharisees. This does not mean that Jesus (or even God for that matter) will do anything he feels like doing. Jesus will never go against anything that involves the True or the Good; with his Father he is the Source of all that is true and good.
But many of the Jewish laws (like civil laws) are positive law. In themselves, they involve matters that are neither good nor bad. It is neither good nor bad to stop at a green light or go through a red one. It is neither good nor bad of itself, to abstain from work on the Sabbath. What makes these acts good or bad is the deeper good of which they are a sign. That deeper good may sometimes involve their non-observance. Hunger and survival may override a rule to fast. In a matter of extreme urgency, it may be necessary to drive (safely) through a red light. The letter of the law is violated, but not the good that it intends.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!