Homily: Tuesday - 23rd Week of OT 2016 - Called to be saints together

Thanks to St. Paul’s extensive correspondence with the Corinthians, we are better informed about the church at Corinth than probably any other first-century church. In 1 Corinthians in particular, Paul treats a wide range of issues affecting the community of believers, including disunity, food offered to idols, sexual sin, and class divisions at the communal celebration of the Eucharist.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that they have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus” called to “be saints together”. They are called to live differently from the pagan, criminal, morally corrupt, yet they so often seemed to be filled more with the Spirit of the world instead of the Spirit of Christ.

This morning we heard how not only were the Christians quarreling among themselves, they were turning to the secular courts to resolve their problems. The Corinthian court system had a widespread reputation of corrupt judges given to bribery. And the Christians coming to court were availing themselves to this system of corruption.

So Saint Paul urges the Corinthians to deal with their problems internally by taking their problems to the holy ones of the community, those gifted with wisdom.

Christians, we are not expected to be totally free from disputes and disagreements; life is complicated, after all—men of good will can disagree about reasonable things. BUT. Christians, our ability to settle issues, to work together, to pardon each other’s offenses, is to be an example to the rest of the world.  The world should be able to point to the Church and say, “See how they love one another, look how they forgive each other, look how they are patient with one another. Look at the joy of their marriages, look at the faith of their children. Look at the sacrifices they make for the good of others.”  Unity, our ability to “be saints together” as Paul says, is to be a visible mark of the Church.

Jesus came to unite a humanity divided by sin—he came to reconcile us to God and to one another and heal the wounds of sin and division.  The new family of God’s children, the Church, is to live in unity and peace. It’s no coincidence that our Gospel this morning is the calling of the twelve apostles. The apostolic teaching, the authority of the bishops, is to be a source of unity for us. Unholy disunity and division occurs when we stray from the Apostolic Faith. 

But when we assent to that faith, and live that faith, when we are mutually forgiving, patient with each other, we become a beacon of eternal salvation.

With the help of God’s grace, may we work for unity today, healing the wounds of sin and division among us, pointing out to all who dwell in the darkness of sin and unbelief to the light of Christ, our salvation, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.