24th Week, Monday, Sept 16
1 Cor 11:17-26, 33 / Luke 7:1-10
Paul rebukes the Corinthians; Your meetings do more harm than good.
Early Christians met each week for a "fellowship meal." Paul calls this meal the "Lord's Supper." In the context of this "fellowship meal," or "Lord's Supper," Christians celebrated the Eucharist, or Mass.
In today's reading, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for abuses
that are starting to take place at the Lord's Supper. Factions are forming;
some people are refusing to share their abundance with their poorer brothers
and sisters; other people are even getting drunk.
These abuses are destroying the proper atmosphere of sharing
and love for the celebration of the Eucharist.
***
How filled with sharing and love are we when we celebrate
the Eucharist? "The effect of our sharing in the body and blood of Christ
is to change us into what we receive." Pope St. Leo the Great
***
Paul makes a strong statement against the Corinthians for
their division between rich and poor at the Eucharistic celebration. Underlying
his reprimand is that the Corinthians act against something basic to
Christianity: the Eucharistic body of Christ builds up the Church as his
ecclesial body. If they eat the one body of Christ and share the same cup, they
ought to be one. They are to be the sign of the unity of all humankind in
Christ.
***
Saintly
Pagan
To have the
kind of faith that fills God with admiration is no small feat! The faith and
conduct of the unnamed Roman officer were so profound that his words have
entered the Rite of Communion in the Holy Mass. He definitely deserved it, for
he exhibited many evangelical virtues: a profound faith that honored God and
confessed his own unworthiness; deep trust that Jesus would do the right thing
for his servant; genuine concern for the welfare of his servant – being an
officer, he had far greater matters to busy himself with and no one would have
faulted him if he hadn’t cared for his ailing servant; though a Roman official,
he respected the religious traditions of the Jews and provided them with a
synagogue… What greater proof Jesus needed for his love of God and neighbor!
This saintly pagan must definitely serve as a model for us, Christians.
***
As much as we strive for perfection, we also have to admit
that nothing can be perfect. No matter how the word is used, such as "the
perfect car", or "the perfect program", or "the perfect
fit", in time to come, something will give way, and what can go wrong will
go wrong. As much as the Church is divine and human, many a times the human
aspect of the Church seems to come across more prominently with its failures
and shortcomings. But this is actually nothing new. It has happened before,
such that even at the essentials and fundamentals, the weakness of the human
aspect of the Church had manifested.
In the early Church, St. Paul highlighted one area that had degenerated into profanity, and of all things it is the Eucharist. Something had gone really wrong that even when the community came for the Eucharist, there were separate factions and discrimination and some were even getting drunk. Obviously, the sense of the sacred and reverence for the divine had diminished to an almost sacrilegious level. It cannot be denied that in this present day and age of the Church, there were occasions when the divine liturgy is subjected to human sacrilege.
We the Church are called to manifest the divine presence of
God especially in our liturgy, but there are times when the devotees of other
religions show us that they have a deeper reverence for the divine. Like Jesus
said of the centurion in the gospel: Not even in Israel have i found faith like
this. Let us strive to be a people of faith, to be a people that shows others
how to revere God and how to offer Him a worthy worship. We do not need to have
a perfect worship; we only need faith to offer God a worthy worship.
***
Prayer
Father, whose purpose it is to unite everyone in Jesus your Son, do not allow us to have separate tables or exclusive reservations neither for the Eucharist nor in our communities. Whatever way we come, rich or poor, saints or sinners, healthy or weak, keep us united in mutual respect and love in the one body of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
&&&
Saints Cornelius and Cyprian
Feast day September 16
In the third century, the emperor Decius decided that all
who would not give up their Christian faith should be killed. The pope, Fabian,
was martyred along with many others. But there were apostates, Christians who
did give up their faith. Emperor Decius thought that without a pope, the Church
would die, so he prevented the election of another bishop of Rome. A council of
priests secretly carried on the work. After a year, while the emperor was away
at war, Cornelius was elected pope.
Cornelius found himself in the midst of problems. A priest
named Novatian—who became an antipope—and his followers believed that apostates
could not be accepted back into the Church even if they had repented. Cornelius
called a council of bishops together to settle the dispute. The council
reaffirmed Cornelius’s position as pope and condemned Novatian’s view. After
two years as pope, Cornelius was arrested under the emperor’s rule and
sentenced to banishment. He died in exile in 253.
Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage in North Africa, was a
friend and supporter of Cornelius’s at this time. Cyprian was born in Carthage
about 210, the son of pagan parents. Cyprian lived a virtuous life after being
converted to Christianity as an adult. He was made a priest and then a bishop.
As bishop of Carthage for nearly 10 years, Cyprian had only
one year of peace. After that, the persecutions under Decius began, as well as
disagreements over what to do with apostates. Like Cornelius, Cyprian had to
deal with Novatian. New persecutions broke out under Emperor Valerian. Cyprian
was arrested and tried for being a Christian. When he was read his death
sentence, he exclaimed “Blessed be God!” He was martyred in 258.
Cornelius and Cyprian encouraged each other to lead virtuous, self-sacrificing, and loving lives for God. There is no greater gift that one friend can offer to another. Today let us think of ways to help our friends grow closer to God.
