Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

 Lectionary: 295

One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision,
"Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city."
He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them.

Saint Paul seemed to have a particular affection for Corinth. It was a port city and a major center of trade. The Peloponnesus dangles like a snared fish off the Greek mainland. It is connected by an isthmus between the Aegean Sea and the Gulf of Corinth. A canal across the isthmus might connect the two bodies of water but a range of high hills runs through it. Ancient engineers contemplated such a canal but it was never built until the 19th century, and is no longer in use today. 

in Saint Paul's day, we should remember, sailors did not venture out of sight of land. Without compasses or accurate maps, without deep keels and the art of tacking, and without stored provisions for long voyages, merchant ships and warrior vessels manned by one or more decks of rowers, crept from port to port, purchasing food along the way. And so the narrow isthmus at Corinth offered a less expensive portage over the hills. Stevedores unloaded ships, loaded wagons, and hauled the cargo across the spine of hills. 

We can only imagine the rough people who lived there: hard young men, washed up sailors, scheming merchants, eager financiers, and entertaining women. Luke's brief story about a Jewish riot before the proconsul Gallio and their manhandling of the unfortunate Sosthenes tells us something about everyday life in Corinth. 

But they were also human beings who by nature and instinct want to know the Truth, and are hungry for it. Paul brought the Good News of God's truth to them. He also seemed to have endless trouble with them, as Saint Luke says and Paul's Letters record. 

But the most troublesome people are the ones we remember with the most affection. If parents don't admit that, teachers, coaches, and camp counselors do. Saint Paul often described himself as a parent of his congregations. He was a father to the Corinthians and a nursing mother to the Thessalonians. He would certainly have enjoyed and endorsed Saint John's reflection today:

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;

but when she has given birth to a child,

she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy

that a child has been born into the world.

So you also are now in anguish.

But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,

and no one will take your joy away from you.

While it's true that the Church is held together by our fidelity to the divine authority of the Pope and the doctrines of our faith, our affection for one another is the mortar which holds the walls together and transforms us into a cathedral. Saint Paul's epistles often reflect that wonder.