1 Cor 1:1-9 / Matthew 24:42-51
Paul encourages the Corinthians: God will keep you firm to the end.
A Jesuit missionary to Africa wrote this letter to his brothers at Loyola University in Chicago: Little boys chatter, fight and run foot races outside my window. Sometimes they stare in at me and watch me, as if I were a gorilla in a zoo. Women come with sick babies and sit on the floor outside my room, talking at the top of their voice.
All the villagers talk as if you’re 30 yards away. But these
things are bearable and routine. “It’s the crisis of conscience that is hard.
Christ said: ‘When you were hungry, you gave me to eat.’ But there’s nobody
here who isn’t hungry; everyone comes for food.” Torrens Hecht, S.J.
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We begin Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, one of the
most famous and frequently quoted of his epistles. For three-and-a-half weeks, we
will hear in the first reading excerpts from Paul’s first letter to the
Corinthians. It is among the most revealing of his writings in which he gives
expression to a full gamut of emotions. In this letter, Paul has to face
practical problems in a young Christian community in pagan territory,
particularly its internal division into factions, lapses of morality, relations
with pagans, the role of charisms, and faith in the resurrection, so difficult
to Greeks.
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Missionaries don’t have an easy life. They draw needed
strength from Paul’s promise that God will strengthen them to the end. How do
we cope with life when it grows hard? “Come to me, all of you who are tired . .
. and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
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In today’s reading, Paul begins by praising the rich and
diverse endowments of the Corinthian Christians. Their many gifts, diverse
charisms and enormous spiritual energy show how the Spirit was working among
them in many ways. The task facing Paul was to try to unify this heterogeneity
into a single community under the Lordship of Jesus. It is a task for any
parish.
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The real function of the second coming is found in Jesus'
words in today's Gospel reading. It gives us perspective. The
three parables read the next three days, have all the same theme:
Readiness for the coming of Christ. Each sets the accent differently. The first
stresses watchfulness. To be alert and attentive to opportunities and the
chances time offers.' The future holds for promises that are certain 'to
'happen and yet they are vested in uncertainty of when and where and how they
will come to pass. A sailor's wife is not eagerly waiting for her husband if
she spends her time on the sea shore looking out and waiting for him. She is
more ready and prepared for his coming when she spends the time being busy
about her household work and looking after her children. Watchfulness is not
mere waiting but readiness, preparedness for the coming of Christ, eager
expectation Christ coming as Saviour and as judge.
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When we have to keep watch and stay awake especially when we
are guarding something precious, it is a heavy responsibility. In the military,
if a soldier is caught sleeping while on guard duty, he will be severely
punished. But it is not that we have to stay awake and keep watch all the time.
If we were to do that, fatigue will set in and we will lose attention. But when
it is our turn to keep watch and stay awake, then we have to be on alert and be
responsible for the duration of our watch. So, when Jesus tells us to stay
awake and be on alert, He is asking us to be on the watch as to when He is
telling us something and wants us to get it done. We see that watchfulness and
alertness in the 1st reading as St. Paul says that he never stopped thanking
God for all the graces that the Corinthians received through Jesus Christ. He
kept thanking God for enriching the Corinthians with teachers and preachers and
the strong witnessing to Christ by the Corinthians.
He further encourages them that God will keep them steady
and without blame until the coming of Jesus Christ. Learning from St. Paul, we
know that by giving thanks constantly, we are already on the watch and alert
for the coming of Jesus. Let us be faithful and keep giving thanks and we will
be rewarded by Jesus.
Let us pray: Lord our God, you have called us to life to be happy ourselves and to make others happy. Make us vividly aware of our responsibility for one another. Help us to be faithful servants whose faith in you is made visible in deeds of sincere love, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. God bless.
