This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Brothers and sisters:

It is widely reported that there is immorality among you,

and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans–

a man living with his father’s wife.

And you are inflated with pride.

Should you not rather have been sorrowful?

The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.

I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit,

have already, as if present,

pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed,

in the name of our Lord Jesus:

when you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit

with the power of the Lord Jesus,

you are to deliver this man to Satan

for the destruction of his flesh,

so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

not a popular topic amongst Christians?

Your boasting is not appropriate.

Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?

Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,

inasmuch as you are unleavened.

For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.

Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,

not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,

but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

We do not know from Paul’s words the true nature of the sinful relationship he describes.. Paul’s unspoken difficulty is that he had not preached a morality but a gospel. Ultimately his standard of morality is imitating Christ and responding to God’s generosity. But this might be a bit vague for say, issues of sexual morality. He assumes that all will agree that the man has done wrong-even pagans don’t think this sort of thing is right! But it may be that the relationship offends tighter views of incest that the ones we now use. I’m not trying to set up a society that advocates sleeping with your mother-in-law, but it’s possible for such a relationship to be blameless, if for example, the woman’s husband and the man’s wife are both dead.

The key thing is that the community should not countenance what it regards as wrong behaviour from a member. If the member will not listen he is to be “delivered to Satan”, that is, expelled from the community, for the destruction of his “flesh”, that is his worldly arrogance, so that he may repent and be saved. If we don’t like the look of this sort of church discipline, it may be pertinent to ask if we would like any sort, and if not, whether our faith community has perhaps become flabby.

Paul’s remarks about leaven are based on the rules for preparation for Passover, in which all yeast has to be removed from the household before the holy feast begins. In the Christian household, Christ is our Passover lamb, sacrificed for us, and all evil has to be removed from the church community, as it celebrates the feast of God’s love.

Gospel Luke 6: 6-11

On a certain Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught,

and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.

The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely

to see if he would cure on the Sabbath

so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.

But he realized their intentions

and said to the man with the withered hand,

“Come up and stand before us.”

And he rose and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them,

“I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath

rather than to do evil,

to save life rather than to destroy it?”

Looking around at them all, he then said to him,

“Stretch out your hand.”

He did so and his hand was restored.

But they became enraged

and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

the rage of the self-righteous

The Pharisees are concerned about an apparent breach of Sabbath custom, but not about the murderous intentions of their hearts. Jesus’ words reach into this hypocrisy: is it lawful to do good, or to do evil, on the Sabbath? For Jesus “good” is always the creator’s goodness: the creating and the blessing of life, which is especially appropriate on the Sabbath.

This fundamental grasp of goodness should characterise all Christian moralities. If this is what we are seeking we won’t go far wrong, or slide into legalistic hypocrisies. Paul’s preaching of the gospel grasps this goodness, but his teaching of morality is sometimes less certain. He does, of course, grasp it in chapter 13 of Corinthians, in which the “good” of which Jesus speaks, is called “agape” in Greek, love in English.

The rage of the Pharisees is instructive. We see it time and time again in legalistic and hypocritical religious people, whether they are homophobic Christians or misogynistic Muslims. This is the rage that crucified Jesus.