Monday, June 14, 2021

 Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

(II Corinthians 6:1-10; Matthew 5:38-42)

Many parents today cannot accept the choices of their children.  They can only shake their heads and maybe pray for a child who is cohabiting with a girlfriend.  They may especially regret that a child uses drugs or has chosen to have an abortion.  They resemble St. Paul in today’s first reading.

Paul has a father’s love for the Corinthian Christian community.  He preached the faith to them.  Then he watched the members grow in love for over a year.  The reports that he hears of factions and misbehavior distresses him.  In the reading he pleads that they become reconciled.  He is not above prodding them with guilt as he mentions the hardships he has endured to preach the gospel.

Our faith as well has not come cheaply.  Some of us were fortunate to have had a Catholic education paid for by others.  Perhaps our parents scrimped on vacations to pay our tuition.  In the heyday of Catholic schools, religious sisters lived on a pittance to keep tuition affordable.  We should not abandon the truths that we learned by conforming to the wickedness of our time.

Monday, June 17, 2019

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

(II Corinthians 6:1-10; Matthew 5:38-42)

Although the Bible is the “word of God” written for the edification of all humans, each its books has a particular context.  Sometimes the context is apparent as in the Letter to Philemon where St. Paul pleads for the liberation of a slave.  Sometimes, however, it is obscure so that readers today cannot understand all the work’s references.  Scholarly opinion of the Letter to the Hebrews, for example, is divided regarding its original readers and intent as well as its author.  There is an element of uncertainty regarding the context of Paul’s so-called Second Letter to the Corinthians.  (Saying “so-called” just indicates that there is reason to think it is a compendium of letters written after Paul’s more famous First Letter.)

The uncertainty of the Second Letter regards the issue of reconciliation to which Paul refers in today’s reading.  In the previous verses he urged the Corinthians to “be reconciled to God.”  Here he indicates that the difficulty they were having with him caused their alienation from God.  What is the difficulty?  Perhaps some Corinthians took offense at some of Paul’s accusations in the First Letter.  Perhaps they have been influenced by a false interpretation of the gospel.  In correspondence between intimates rarely is the context fully explained.

Nevertheless, the Second Letter to the Corinthians reveals an enormous amount of information about St. Paul.  It tells us of his remarkable suffering on behalf of Christ and of his ongoing dialogue with him.  We stand in awe of this scholar missionary martyr.  We also thank God for his work that is, at least in part, responsible for our coming to know Jesus Christ.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

(II Corinthians 6:1-10; Matthew 5:38-42)

Rodney King became an unlikely prophet twenty-five years ago.  The former convict and then alleged victim of police abuse called for reconciliation among peoples during the Los Angeles race riots of 1992.  The people were reacting to the acquittal of the police officers who apparently brutalized King while arresting him.  Nevertheless, King pleaded for peace: “I just want to say - you know - can we all get along? Can we, can we get along?” Rodney King’s words echo St. Paul’s in today’s first reading.

Paul appeals to his beloved Corinthians to end all strife among themselves.  “’Behold now is the acceptable time’” Paul says, “’now is the day of salvation.’” Paul proceeds to use himself as an example for reconciliation.  As he has suffered hardship and distress for the sake of the Lord, so should the Corinthians put behind them disagreements and resentments.  Mutual love must become the mark of Christians as a testimony to the grace bestowed on them by God through Jesus.

We too must rise above personal preferences and petty differences to embrace one another in solidarity.  It becomes difficult when we believe that we are in the right but suffering a loss of esteem or property.  Nevertheless, civility should always mark our approach and understanding, our attitude.  As long as no one is seriously jeopardized, we probably can afford some loss of resources for the sake of Christ’s peace.