Tuesday of the
Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
(I Corinthians 6:1-11; Luke 6:12-19)
A recent article contrasts permissive parents who allow
their adolescent children to attend parties where alcohol is served with parents
who forbid it. The first group, called “Get-Real
Parents,” believes that the best they could do to prevent tragedy is insist
that their children don’t drive when they drink. The latter group, called “Good Parents,” believes
that their children should know from the start that it is unhealthy for them to
drink at parties. The community of Christians at Corinth, which St. Paul is
addressing in the first reading, faces similar challenges of questionable moral
behavior.
Paul refuses to excuse sinfulness. He counts sexual aberrations like fornication
and sodomy along with greed and idolatry as blocks to entry into the Kingdom of
God. Just as many “Get-Real” people
might want to overlook these sins today, some in Paul’s time were willing to downplay
their seriousness. Paul, however, knows
that Christ came to save the world from its overindulgence.
This does not mean that we can condemn all sinners to
hell. On the contrary, we should promote
their repentance through prayer, example, and – if feasible – advice. Proceeding in this way we become, like Paul himself,
additions to the twelve apostles named in today’s gospel.
