Tuesday of the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091112.cfm

Arras from Saint Meinrad
with lion and unicorn

Now indeed then it is, in any case,
a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another.
Why not rather put up with injustice?
Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?
Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers.

Again we hear Saint Paul’s aching disappointment in his Corinthian disciples. Surely he was tempted to wonder if the gospel itself was failing.

And we can well imagine the intransigence of those who sat in the congregation and heard this letter read to them. How ridiculous to suggest they should “put up with injustice” and “let yourselves be cheated!” Where is this guy coming from?

He was coming from another reality altogether; and, in a sense, it was hard for him to remember how it had been when he lived in this world. He loved the Lord so much and had such a clear vision of how the Church should be. He had suffered many disappointments yet continued to soldier on, preaching the gospel in season and out of season, and he was so happy! Why couldn’t they get it?

Two thousand years later we are no closer to his ideal church. Christians still haul one another into court. Christians still press charges against Christian criminals and insist on prosecution, punishment and even the death penalty. Despite our weekly church attendance, we are not only “in the world;” we are “of the world.” Has the gospel failed?

In today’s gospel we hear of Jesus descending to the plain – a stretch of level ground – to preach. This passage corresponds to Saint Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount;” but Saint Luke wants us to hear Jesus not from a high and lofty place; we should know his teaching is for people who live in the mundane realities of this world. His message will be both more consoling and more threatening. Tomorrow we will hear him utter four blessings for God’s chosen, and four curses for the wicked. Clearly there is danger for the wicked whether they attend church or not.

Saint Paul’s anguished plea that disciples should endure mistreatment even from their own might not be the best way to handle a dispute; but we should never lose his vision of the Church. Every individual member should labor to develop close personal ties within the fellowship, thus binding the congregation more closely together. Simple attendance on Sunday is not sufficient. There should be frequent gatherings of Christians outside the church walls. They should support one another as friends, neighbors and family. No one should be a stranger. They should readily support the education and formation of everyone’s children, and care for their elderly. We’re all in this together.

If the whole nation is connected by six degrees of separation; a parish should have no more than two. A church so blessed will not have to call in the civil magistrates to arbitrate their disputes.