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The Catholic Telegraph
January 18, 2002The weeks of Ordinary Time in the Church’s calendar begin on the day after the celebration of the baptism of the Lord. During these weeks the second readings for Sunday are composed of extracts (which the Lectionary refers to as "semicontinuous readings") from the Pauline letters, the letter of James, and the letter to the Hebrews. These readings have no connection with the first readings or the gospel readings.
To begin each year’s ordinary time, we have a series of readings from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. This is a long and complex letter which the people in charge of putting the Lectionary together apparently thought would be too much for a single year. Consequently we have seven readings from First Corinthians in years A and C, and five in year B, making this the book of the New Testament that provides more second readings than any other.
First Corinthians is a very intense letter because the Corinthians were seemingly very intense people. Scripture scholars describe them as conceited, stubborn, over-sensitive, argumentative, infantile, and pushy. There were lots of problems in this young church, some of which Paul had heard about from personal reports from the community’s members, some of which had been sent to him for comment by the community itself. Practically all these issues are concerned with Christian identity and church unity. One might say that the question to which Paul addresses himself in this letter is: "What does it mean to be church?"
This Sunday’s live letter reading consists of the greeting that constitutes the very first verses of the letter. The epistolary conventions of Paul’s time called for a letter to open with greetings preceded by the name of the sender and of the addressee: "X to Y, greetings." The greeting section of First Corinthians is much more elaborate than that because Paul wants to offer teaching to the Corinthians right from the beginning.
He begins with his own name, but hastens to add a rationale for their acceptance of what he is going to say: he is an apostle of Jesus Christ and has been called to this responsibility by God. He mentions Sosthenes, who is otherwise unknown and who is not mentioned again in First Corinthians. Apparently this was a Christian who was known to the Corinthians and who was with Paul when he was composing the letter.
The letter is addressed to "the church of God that is in Corinth." Paul goes on to describe what "church" involves. Its members are those who have been called to holiness by being in Christ Jesus. They are connected with believers everywhere else who profess faith in Jesus.
Finally he wishes them "grace and peace." This phrase is used in every one of Paul’s letters. It puts together the standard words of greeting in Greek and Hebrew and constitutes a prayer that the fullness of God’s generous blessing would come upon the community to which it is addressed.
In these few words in this most conventional part of the letter, Paul is giving the basic orientation of the whole letter, the fundamental context in which his teaching is to be received. He is giving a description of the Church. The Church is one and holy because its membership is constituted by the shared holiness of the one Christ. It is catholic, i.e., universal because it includes "all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is apostolic because it is proclaimed by those who have been called by God to be apostles. This community offers grace (a participation in God’s life) and peace (the fullness of His blessing) to its members. In one way or another, all the rest of First Corinthians will be a commentary on these three verses.
There is a lifetime of material for reflection here, but we will content ourselves with just two sets of observations.
First of all, being in the Church means being made holy by the act of God, an act expressed in the sacrament of baptism. We do not earn holiness or achieve it. We receive it as the free gift of God. This holiness consists in sharing the life of the risen Christ. From our first day as members of the Church, we are all "saints" (one of the standard terms that Paul uses to refer to members of the Church) because we have Christ’s life in us. This is not a sainthood that comes as the result of our spiritual and moral efforts, but a participation in God’s holiness that calls for certain types of behavior on our part by way of response. We act like Christians not in order to become holy but in order to be consistent with the holiness we have already received.
Secondly, this holiness involves "grace and peace." The word "grace" has overtones of joy. It suggests God’s generosity, God’s intervention in our lives. "Peace" in the biblical sense means more than the absence of war. It suggests a harmonious working together of all the elements of the reality in which God has placed us.
Holiness, grace, and peace: that’s what being a Christian believer involves.
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Conversation Questions.
In what ways do I see myself as holy?
How and where do I experience grace and peace in my life?
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