The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Today, the
Apostle tells us what is “of first importance” (I Corinthians 15:1). Think, for
a moment, about your life, about your goals, your hopes and dreams, about what
most occupies your thoughts when things are quiet and you are alone. Thoroughly
sift them for a moment in the sieve of your heart.
What is of first
importance to you? Your spouse? Your children? Your work? Your retirement? Your
freedom? Yourself? However important any of these may be, Saint Paul does not name
any of them as being of first importance; rather, what he says is of first
importance is what he has himself received. This little detail is of the greatest
significance because it shows that Paul did not invent what says is most important;
rather, he received it from the Lord Jesus and from the Twelve.
Contrary to what
some claim today, Saint Paul is not the creator of Christianity; rather, he
himself received the Christian faith and, having received it, endeavored to
bring it to the entire world. For this faith, he willingly – and even gladly –
endured shipwrecks and beatings and imprisonments and hunger and thirst (cf. II Corinthians 11:23-27). All of these he suffered because of what is of first
importance, namely, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in
accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve”
(I Corinthians 15:3-5). When you thought about what is more important, did you think
of the Gospel?
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| MS M.302 fol. 3r The Morgan Library & Museum |
Saint Paul says
the Gospel is of first importance because he knew himself to be the “foremost”
of sinners (I Timothy 1:15). He had “persecuted the Church of God” and in doing
so had persecuted Christ Jesus himself (I Corinthians 15:9; cf. Acts 9:4).
Being a sinner, he knew himself to be in need of salvation; he knew that
without salvation he stood condemned, and he knew he could not save himself. This
is why he knew that “Christ died for our sins” is of first importance, both for
him and for us, for we are sinners, too, each one of us.
Have you ever
wondered how the first Christians knew that Jesus’ death on the Cross was for
our sins? To ask it another way,
How did the early Church know that the
death of the Master was not just the unfortunate execution of a prophet who
claimed to be divine but actually the most important event in the history of
the world, the redeeming death of the Son of God, by which all mankind could
find forgiveness of their sins?[1]
On the one hand,
they saw in these words of the Prophet Isaiah a clear foretelling of all the
Messiah would endure for the salvation of his people:
He was pierced for our sins,
crushed
for our iniquity.
He bore the punishment that makes us whole,
He bore the punishment that makes us whole,
by
his wounds we were healed.
We had all gone astray like sheep,
all
following our own way;
but the Lord
laid upon him
the
guilt of us all (Isaiah 53:5-6).
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| Ruins of Corinth |
The Church at
Corinth was something of a raucous bunch, made up of some Christians who fully
embraced the Gospel and its demands, yes, but that also contained no small
number of Christians who refused to fully give themselves to Christ, as even a
cursory reading of Saint Paul’s letters to the Corinthians shows. What is it,
then, that kept them together, that kept them from fracturing and each going further
along his own way? It was the Gospel that they received, the forgiveness of
sins in Christ, and in which they stood; as often as they strayed away from it,
they returned to stand upon that which is of most importance. “The emphasis
falls on the last word: holding on to the original proclamation is the only
thing that keeps them together and stable. It brings salvation and eternal life”
and for this reason, Saint Paul says, “through it you are also being saved, if
you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain” (I Corinthians 15:2).[2]
Some of our
Protestant brothers and sisters are found of the question, “Are you saved?”
When asked this question, many Catholics are uncertain how they should answer
it. When asked this question, you should respond with the words of Saint Paul;
you should say something like this: “I was saved, I am being saved, and I hope
to be saved.” We were saved in the waters of Baptism, yes, having been redeemed
by the Precious Blood of Christ. But we are also being saved now because it is
possible, through our free choices against Christ and for mortal sins, that we
might lose our salvation. This is why Saint Paul tells us elsewhere to “work out
your salvation in fear and trembling” so that we might one day be finally saved
(Philippians 2:12).
Despite what
some claim, Saint Paul teaches us quite clearly that salvation is guaranteed to
none of us; he says, “Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not
to fall” (I Corinthians 10:12). How often do we fall? What do we do to keep
from falling? This is why we have come today to the altar of God. Just a few
moments ago, we acknowledged our sinfulness to the Lord, some of us more
sincerely than others. In just a few moments more, we will sing in the sight of
the angels, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts! All the earth is filled
with his glory” (cf. Psalm 138:1; Isaiah 6:3)! We come before the Lord to say
to him, “Here I am; send me” and to entrust to him whatever boat of ours it is
that he wants to make use of (Isaiah 6:8; cf. Luke 5:3). We have come to
receive the Gospel, to be saved by it, and to share it with others so they,
too, may be saved. Salvation, then, is the of the first importance, even though
we so often think of it last.
Saint Augustine
reminds us that, as he went about his missionary efforts, “Paul did not labor
in order to receive grace, but he received grace so that he might labor.”[3] In
other words, we are not bound to tell others about Jesus and to help them
encounter him because of some benefit to ourselves; it is not about us, but
about Jesus. Whatever we do or say, it is always about Jesus and his salvation.
May the angels, then, remind us of this continually, so that as we are being
saved and perfected by the Gospel, we might sing with them both now and
eternally, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” Amen.
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