Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
and Sosthenes our brother,
to the Church of God that is in Corinth,
to you who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy,
with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Biblical times, Corinth was a port city on the Ionian Sea (see map). When ocean-going ships -- not yet blessed with telescopes, compasses or sextants -- stayed in sight of the land and pulled into ports at night, Corinth offered a shortcut around the enormous Peloponnesus peninsula. Stevedores unloaded the boats and carted the merchandise over the hump to the Aegean Sea.

Necessarily the city hosted people from the entire Mediterranean basin, from Spain to Egypt, from Rome to Tyre and Carthage. Rich and poor, black and white, every language and every religion of every race gathered in the marketplace with currencies of every sort. There they enjoyed shopping, politics, religion and entertainment. Corinth must have been a pretty exciting place where the lucky could get rich and the foolish could be destroyed overnight. Rank meant nothing in such a place where clever women, foreigners and slaves might have enormous influence.

Christianity found a ready welcome there among the Jews and gentiles, but Saint Paul often tore his hair out with the wild ideas that cropped up in his peculiar congregation. And so he reminds them of their calling: who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy…

As America has also become a crossroads of the world’s ideas, languages, technologies, students, tourists, migrants and religions we should pay attention to Saint Paul and his letters to the Corinthians. Catholics especially should remember we are called to be holy in a multicultural environment. Pining for the good old days when the world was more familiar will not address our current situation. 

If we do not strive for holiness, there is no reason to be here. If we do not somehow reflect the presence of Holiness to our fellow citizens, there is no reason to cling to any particular customs or identity.

During my VA chaplain training session in Hampton Virginia, the question was asked, “Do people hold the chaplain to a higher standard?”

Of course they do!

Should they?

Yes.

Do people hold Catholics to a higher standard?

Perhaps they don’t.

Should they?
Yes. 

They have every right to expect better of us. We have the Blessed Sacrament in our churches. We have a liturgy that is celebrated continuously – one single living prayer of the one Church – at every hour of every day, in most nations of the world, in union with the angels, saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary, with Jesus Christ as our priest. 

They expect us to honor the needs of the homeless, imprisoned, uneducated, disrespected and confused, just as the rain falls on the good and the bad, the sun shines on the just and unjust.

Ours is a very high calling. Let's pray on that.