A Pastor Responds to His Flock
January 24, 2024
Fr. John Riccardo
Brothers and sisters: I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.
A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
1 Corinthians 7:32-35
I can just imagine the eyerolls among some people this coming Sunday as this passage is proclaimed at Mass. There goes the Catholic Church again. Why is she always so down on marriage and sexuality and the things of this world?!
Perhaps it would be helpful to remind ourselves a few basic things about what we call “Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians.” First, it’s a real letter written by a real man to a real community (probably less than 100 people). Second, it’s written to men and women who have undergone a profound encounter with Jesus as adults. As anyone baptized as an adult knows, when this happens, some things don’t change; everything changes. Our approach to and understanding of money and sexuality are usually two of the areas that undergo the most significant transformations.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote in God is Love, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (1). In new believers, this life-changing encounter with Jesus usually and unsurprisingly leads to no small amount of confusion and a desire to ask lots of questions. Anyone who has been blessed to walk with people who are coming into the Catholic Church knows this well. I was fortunate to do that for more than twenty years, and I always found one of the highlights of the year nights that were dedicated to letting people ask any and every question they had.
That’s what’s going on here. The Corinthians are asking Paul questions and he is answering them. How do we know that? Because at the start of Chapter 7 Paul writes, “Now, concerning the matters about which you wrote…” Unfortunately, we didn’t hear that part of the letter proclaimed at Mass, and so it’s easy to get the impression that Paul is just tossing around some generic advice, when in fact it’s specific advice to specific people. Even more unfortunately, we don’t have the letter that the Christians in Corinth wrote to Paul. Most scholars are of the mind that in Chapter 7 Paul is answering questions posed by new converts who suddenly don’t know how to think about marriage and sexuality. And they want to know what he thinks they should do. One author has tried to come up with what he thinks that letter might have looked like. Here’s what he proposes the final part of the letter, dealing with what we find in 1 Cor 7:25-40, might have sounded like:
“Several engaged individuals have caused us special anxiety by suddenly announcing that they do not wish to marry. How should these young men behave towards their fiancées? Should they break off the engagement? Some have already done this and received on that account furious reproaches from the family, for they have abandoned their fiancées. Further, can they actually sustain such a condition? Others are saying they wish to remain perpetually engaged, but without marrying. This request is met with great resistance both from the parents and families, but also in the community assembly. So much complaint was visited upon one couple (N. and N.) that under the pressure they eventually married (however, the husband is now a bit distressed in his conscience). Several young men are saying that they had already discussed this wish with you and that you encouraged them to carry it out. Others are bringing this wish now before us and asking what they should do. Do you really think that such a thing can go well? Tempers are somewhat on edge about this, and a clarifying word from you would do a lot to help us all.”
It’s amazing how differently Paul’s letter reads when we see it as a response to something like this, isn’t it?
Several things might be worthy of our time this week as we pray with this passage this week. A first might be to reflect on Pope Benedict’s words and ask ourselves whether or not that has happened for us. Is our faith an ethical choice or have we met the living God so much so that everything is now different? Do we know Him or do we know about Him? Very much related to that, do we make it a priority to spend intentional time with Him every day in conversation, reading His Word, listening to His voice and just being with Him as a friend? Perhaps especially given the subject matter of much of 1st Corinthians 6 and 7, we might ask ourselves if we see marriage and sexuality through the lens of faith. Is Jesus really the Lord of our minds, imaginations, desires, and bodies? Do we even want Him to be Lord of these? This isn’t to say we won’t struggle – how could we not, living in this culture? Let’s ask Him if and where He might want to break more deeply into our lives, so as to lead us to greater freedom, greater wholeness, and greater happiness – though it will probably be more than a little challenging!
ACTS XXIX Prayer Intentions
Protection for us, our mission and our families.
All the Bishops, priests and lay leaders we are ministering to this month.