FAITH ACTIVATING THE TRADITIONS

SAINTS CORNELIUS, POPE, AND CYPRIAN, BISHOP, MARTYRS

1 Cor 11:17-26,33; Ps 40:7-10,17; Lk 7:1-10

Faith and Tradition from the Lord

The two questions our Lord put to his disciples in yesterday's gospel helped us to understand and see the difference between what the people are saying about the identity of Jesus Christ and what ought to be our knowledge of him. We can also make the same distinction between the tradition that came to us and our actual understanding of the tradition and our practice of it. The disparity between these two is what St. Paul attempts to point out and correct in the first reading. He found the practice of the Eucharistic communion in the Corinthian community in total divergence from what he received from the apostolic tradition and passed on to them. “The point is, when you hold meetings, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you are eating, since when the time comes to eat, everyone is in such a hurry to start his own supper that one person goes hungry while another is getting drunk.” The cause of the divergence is their lack of understanding of what they received as tradition. They simply received and imitated the practice without reflectively appropriating the doctrine and attending to the reality they were celebrating. The relevance of the Lord's question to his disciples about his identity after asking them what people were saying about him is evident here.

It is not enough to receive the Catholic doctrines and traditions; we must appropriate them reflectively for a new or spiritual self to evolve in the image of Jesus Christ. St. Paul called their attention again to the mystery involved in the Eucharistic celebration, which they had overlooked in the practice. “For this is what I received from the Lord, and in turn passed on to you: that on the same night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread, and thanked God for it and broke it, and he said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me.’ In the same way, he took the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.’” A mindless following of what others said and did caused the Corinthians to misbehave before the Lord. We must exercise our faith in personal prayer, meditation, and contemplation of the word of God before celebrating the traditions we received from the apostles. When our faith is quickened by these, it makes the Lord real among us through traditional celebrations.

The example of the desirable faith that makes the Lord present to us everywhere is the faith of the good centurion who sent for implored the help of Jesus for his sick servant, as given in the gospel. “‘Sir,’ he said ‘do not put yourself to trouble; because I am not worthy to have you under my roof; and for this same reason I did not presume to come to you myself; but give the word and let my servant be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’” We get this sort of faith by understanding the identity of Jesus Christ through revelation from the Holy Spirit. The centurion applied his military experience to receive what he asked of our Lord through his faith in the authority of Jesus Christ. The Pope Cornelius and the Bishop of Carthage Cyprian were true disciples of Jesus Christ and shepherds of the flock of God. They imbibed and practiced the truth they received through the apostolic tradition and made Christ real to the flock entrusted to them. St. Cornelius, aided by Cyprian, fought against the Novatian schismatics and established his papal authority. Emperor Gallus sent him into exile; He was killed later in 253. St. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, steered his church through troubled times of the persecutions of Decius and Valerian. He was exiled and later killed 258.  May their prayers help us receive and practice the apostolic traditions in good faith and proper understanding.  

Let us pray: O God, who gave Saints Cornelius and Cyprian to your people as diligent shepherds and valiant Martyrs, grant that through their intercession we may be strengthened in faith and constancy and spend ourselves without reserve for the unity of the Church.