Homily- for Monday of the 23rd Week of Ord.
Time Year. B. Labor Day Weekend In the USA
v 1 Cor 5:1-8
v Ps 5:5-6, 7, 12
v Luke 6:6-11
“Cleaning out the old yeast and embracing the unleavened
bread of Sincerity and Truth.”
Today, Monday of September 7 is a labor day in the United
State. Celebrating the gift of labor and labor union and of course, the
importance of work and labor as spelt out in various social teachings of the
Catholic Church. To work, St. Benedict would say is to pray!
The readings of
today is equally enriching for everyone both within and outside the United
State. They invite us to rethink our call to community discipline and the
importance of caring for one another, in Christ, Sabbath or no Sabbath, while
we carry out our daily works.
In the first reading
(I Cor 5:1-8), Saint Paul reminds the Corinthians of the importance of ethical
discipline in the community of God’s people. In addition, to issue of unity which
he has been emphasizing in the preceding chapters of his First Letter to the
Corinthian, in the begging of chapter 5, Paul affirm the already Roman and
Jesus law ( Deut 22:20; 27:20 Lev 18:7-8) that forbade marriage between a man
and his stepmother. He is shocked by
this behavior in Corinth and condemns it unequivocally. He invites, them in the
name of Jesus to “clean out the old yeast”, those bad immoral behaviors, while
embracing the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Saint Paul is asking the Corinthians to reject empty
boasting, disunity, corruption, sexual promiscuity, dishonesty and hypocrisy, a
type known especially among the Pharisees and the scribes of today’s Gospel(
Luke 6:6-11). The Pharisees would prefer, not to save life or perform acts of
love and charity on the Sabbath.
For Paul and of
course, Christ, it is lawful to do otherwise, assist the needy, the poor, save
life, and be charitable, kind, loving, forgiving and healing, even on the Sabbath.
It is lawful to pursue the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and social
justice on the Sabbath.
Today’s scripture challenges everyone in different
cultural contexts, not only to reexamine their community discipline, and how
they would assist others, especially the sick, but their overall ethical and
sexual conducts, particularly the type raised by Saint Paul in his Letter to
the Church in Corinth today.
Reflection Questions:
1.
How does people in different parts of the world read Paul 1 Letter to the
Corinthian 5:1-8?
2.
What prevents us from assisting the dying and rendering essential services
on the Sabbath?
3.
What prevents us from abandoning our old yeast to pursue the new unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth?
4.
What is our attitude towards labor?
