CORRUPTED ATTENTION ON CHRIST

MONDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 5:1-8; Ps 5:5-7,12; Lk 6:6-11

False Attention on Jesus Christ

Saint Paul finally hits the nail on the head. He mentions the root cause of the community's ills and problems at Corinth: self-conceit, or pride. This is the root of every vice that grows in our lives. According to Saint Augustine, pride is such an evil and dangerous thing that, while other vices will need a sinful habitat to germinate and grow, pride can germinate and thrive amidst virtues. Who would think that the partisan spirit in the Corinthian community is rooted in pride and self-exaltation? But Paul traced it to pride. “The pride that you take in yourselves is hardly to your credit. You must know how even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough, so get rid of all the old yeast, and make yourselves into a completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be.” The symbol of yeast is so apt here for what pride does in our spiritual life. No matter how little it is, once it enters into the dough, it causes it to leaven.

This is why unleavened bread is used for our Eucharistic consecration: the hosts of unleavened bread stand for Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, and his members whom he has purified from sin and evil. When pride or self takes the central place, it corrupts all our religious devotion and activities. Pride corrupts our religious attention to Jesus Christ into a means of self-seeking, rather than for the glory of God and salvation of souls. Paul understood what pride can do to a Christian and did not doubt the report of immorality in the community. “I have been told as an undoubted fact that one of you is living with his father’s wife. This is a case of sexual immorality among you that must be unparalleled even among pagans. How can you be proud of yourselves? You should be in mourning.” When we are self-conceited, we are blind to God’s presence, even when we maintain all religious external practices. Pride wreaks havoc on our souls and the souls of others connected or entrusted to us. Though pride is about self, it is the mark of the devil and reveals his presence. We must be vigilant over ourselves to prevent this yeast of Pharisees from entering.  

Next to pride is immorality, which is a spiritual contagion that easily spreads in the community if not checked or quarantined immediately. Hence, Paul recommends a strange measure against the immoral person. “When you are assembled together in the name of the Lord Jesus, and I am spiritually present with you, then with the power of our Lord Jesus he is to be handed over to Satan so that his sensual body may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” This sounds strange; but what Paul recommended is that the community should hand over such a person to Satan or that God should allow such a person to be afflicted in his body in order to bring about an inner conversion. Every sin is a spiritual affliction or disability which will ultimately manifest in physical affliction, sickness, or disability. Hence, while the Lord pitied the physically challenged man in the Gospel because of his faith, he expressed anger with the Pharisees who were spiritually sick and disabled. “On the sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure a man on the sabbath, hoping to find something to use against him.” What kind of attention do we give to Jesus Christ? Is our purpose for our own interest to glorify God and receive salvation? Only God knows, as the psalmist says: “You are no God who loves evil; no sinner is your guest. The boastful shall not stand their ground before your face.”

Let us pray: O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters, that those who believe in Christ may receive true freedom and an everlasting inheritance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.