January 28, 2024
St. Paul is answering questions about these different states. His responses are both challenging and comforting. What is the divine hope behind them?
Key Points
- He reminds us that this earthly life is passing.
- What is the great revolution of his teaching in a pagan society?
- How does this illuminate married life?
- What hope does it give those who are not married?
- Who is called to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb?
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or virgin is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband.” St. Paul, in this chapter, chapter seven of his letter to the Corinthians, is responding to a bunch of questions that they have put to him, a whole series of questions about marriage and virginity. Corinth was a large pagan city, and it was known for its immorality, and to be known for your morality among the pagan cities said a lot, because there’s a lot of immorality. And so for the Christians who are, who have just recently converted, they have a whole bunch of questions about how they’re supposed to put into practice this radical new way, this revolutionary way of living, that St. Paul is talking about. And still today in our society, which is becoming more and more pagan, so this also is a revolutionary message, very challenging. But hidden in St. Paul’s words, is a divine hope, a great hope for all, whether for married, and those persons who are married and in difficult situations, for those who are unmarried. For all, for instance, for those who are experiencing same sex attraction. So the part we read last week was St. Paul stressing how short this life is in the urgency of our time here. It says, “I tell you, brothers and sisters, that time is running out, for the world in its present form is passing away.” So that’s very important. And that’s what we were stressing last week, that St. Paul saying that our time here on Earth is just passing. So what’s important is preparing for what is to come, for what is eternal, for what is not passing but eternal. And that changes the whole perspective. Because our world tends to be overly focused on what is here. And St. Paul is reminding us that it is passing. But what’s important is to get ready to use this time well for eternity. And so today, in our world today, and which we’re going through very hard times, in which we know that there’s a lot of confusion, a lot of questions about these issues of love, and relationships and marriage this message of St. Paul is more urgent than ever. And so what is the great secret that inspires this whole advice that he’s given? And it’s the revolutionary secret of how much each one of us is loved by the Lord, especially in a pagan society in which a lot of people were very badly treated. St. Paul’s reviewing that each one of us has been specially created, because of the particular love that God has for each one of us. That we are created as persons with an immortal soul of infinite value. And even these bodies that we have, even if these bodies, the physical body will suffer death. But he reveals to us that our bodies are destined for the resurrection. If we’ve been faithful to the Lord our bodies will be participating in God’s glory. And so the great secret that he’s revealing is that each one of us is called not just to serve God, which is already an honor to serve God, but not just to serve God, but to union with God. That’s why Jesus says I no longer call you servants; I call you friends and friends means something a lot more than it means like on Facebook. When Jesus says friends, He means one that He loves. Love by God called to friendship, called to union with God to receive His love. That’s why God says that, to help us understand how much He loves us. Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, and there’s infinitely unimaginable love between the Father and the Son, He says, so I have loved you. And then calls us, He says, then live on in My love, dwell in My love. And so that’s our call. That’s our destiny. That’s what God is calling us to, is to dwell forever, in the infinite ocean of His love for us, in which our joy will be without limits, a perfect joy without anything lacking, the joy of God Himself. And the Book of Revelations reveals that with the language of the wedding feast of the Lamb, the union of God, not just with the Church, and as a whole, but with each soul, which has responded to His call, the wedding feast of the lamb. And so that’s the very reason for our whole existence. That’s why we’re here, is for the wedding feast of the lamb, for union with God. That’s the reason for all of our existence. That’s the reason for our time here on earth, it’s to get ready for the union with God. And so all of that is behind St. Paul, say, when he says, there, it says, the unmarried is when he speaks about being anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord, how to be holy, in body and spirit. So anxious about the affairs of the Lord. That is that what the person cares about most of all, is what’s most important, what’s most important to God, that the salvation of souls, that the kingdom of God in the Church that the Lord wants to build up a society of love. He says, concerned about how to please the Lord. You know, think about how much society distracts us in so many ways, and so many people that we’re trying to please or impress. And so that that often distorts our decisions, and for instance are thinking about how much the media and social media distorts what we think is important and in our actions. And so when St. Paul says how to please the Lord, that gives an orientation to our whole life, and simplifies everything, keeping our eyes focused on what is pleasing to the Lord. And Jesus says, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul and all your strength. And so that’s what St. Paul is talking about. Another way of saying that is simply to live in the truth, because that’s the truth. That’s why we were made, that’s the reason for all our existence, is to love the Lord. And so he says, how to be holy in body and spirit, not just in spirit, but in body and spirit that our whole being, body and spirit is called to union with God. And so that’s the sense of our whole existence. But we know we all struggle with divisions, because in this world, which is wounded by sin, corrupted, and confused by sin, we know that there’s a whole part of us, which is pulling us in the opposite direction. And so we’re always struggling with that. And so that’s what St. Paul is addressing. So what does he say? Why is he saying this? He says it right, that it was the very first passage, the very first line we heard today. He says, Why am I telling you this? He says, I’m telling you this because I want to make your life more complicated. I want to add stress to your life, right? You don’t have enough stress. I’m trying to add more. He doesn’t say that. He says the opposite. He says, “I want you to be free from anxieties.” I want you to be free from anxieties. And it goes on to say, “I say this for your own benefit, not to lay,” and this is very important when he says, he says, “not to lay any restraint upon you.” Well, isn’t that what Christianity is about? A bunch of restraints, right? That’s Christian has all about God putting restraints on us. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Right. That’s a bunch of rules and a bunch of restraints, right? Isn’t that what our religion is all about? That’s what it seems like to a lot of people. But St. Paul says, I’m not saying this to you to lay any restraint on you, but rather says to promote good order, basically, so that, that you can live in the truth, live, the way things are, the way things should be. And he says and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord, undivided devotion to the Lord. Basically, he’s calling us to simplify our life by the great truth, that can inspire all our life of God’s eternal plan for us. And so he talks about the married, those who are married. And so St. Paul’s not disparaging marriage. Like there are a number of pagan groups, and in his time, and what followed that said that marriage was evil. But on the contrary, St. Paul in Ephesians five is a great example that is exalting the Christian vocation of marriage, as an image of the love of God for the Church. And so he’s revealing the holiness of the vocation to a Christian marriage. But he’s speaking also of a problem. And he says, If you marry, you do not sin. Yet those who marry will have troubles in the flesh or worldly troubles. It’s also translated, and I would spare you that. So he’s being realistic about the challenges in marriage, and that the married life often causes divisions in a person. And I think when St. Paul says that the married person is divided, I don’t think he means that it has to be that way. Because we have the example of a lot of saints who lived marriage as a path of holiness. And a greatest example, of course, is the Holy family itself, our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. But he’s being realistic that it doesn’t have to be that way. But in fact, it usually is that way. That usually is that we’re divided between God and human concerns. And when St. Paul says, divided, he doesn’t mean loving God, and loving others and loving our spouse or loving our children, because that God is calling us to that. But remember that we talked about that a couple of months ago, there’s always an order that God is always first. when asked, Jesus says the greatest commandment says, you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, or your mind and all your strength. And then He says, and they will want to ask him what is the greatest commandment, but Jesus says, and the other one is to love your neighbor. So those go together, but there needs to be that order, that proper order. So putting God first doesn’t destroy the marriage. But on the contrary, it makes marriage capable of its greatest potential. And the example we have, again, is Mary and Joseph, by both of them putting God first and it wasn’t like Mary said, Well, I’m going to love God with 80% of my heart. And then I’ll give Joseph 20%. She loved God with all her heart, but loving God with all her heart made her much more capable of loving Joseph, and also the same with Joseph. And so marriage can be lived two ways. It can be lived simply as a human decision, which is the way most people do. Or it can be lived as a vocation, a call from God. And some people it’s only later on in life. Oftentimes when people get married, the motivation is very human. But sometimes later on in life, they begin to discover that their spiritual life deepens, and they began to discover marriage as the vocation as the path of serving the Lord, offering its joys and sacrifices to the Lord. So marriage lived as a Christian is this path of following Jesus and a life of self-sacrifice, of carrying the cross. Because what is the cross? The cross is a life of sacrificing oneself for love. And so that’s I think that’s the danger in a lot of marriage celebrations. A lot of marriage celebrations are seemed like more pagan than Christian. And they’re setting people up with unrealistic expectations. And I think that’s one of the advantages in a religious vocation, of a religious profession. Where, in the ceremony, it’s very clear that this is a preparation for a life of sacrifice. Marriage also is preparation for life of sacrifice, right. And I think that you who are married know that there’s a little bit of sacrifices right in marriage. But that’s often not made very clear in the sacraments. I don’t mean that marriages should be celebrated in sackcloth and ashes, right? I’m not saying that. But let’s just like in a in a religious profession, it should be clear that a Christian is embracing a path of self-giving a following Jesus on the path of self-giving. It’s a path to the Lord to heaven. But it’s a path through the cross, to heaven through the cross. And St. Paul’s also talking to those who are not married. And he’s showing it takes that state of not being married can take on a whole new meaning when it’s lived for the Lord. And so it’s not just the fact that being not married, which it makes it preferable, because a person cannot be married because they’re trying to avoid commitments, or it can be for selfish reasons for many different reasons. The fact of not being married, there can be all sorts of different situations that corresponds to for many different reasons. Sometimes it’s chosen, sometimes it’s not chosen. But what St. Paul is talking about, are those who live that situation for the Lord. And that’s what changes it, living it for the Lord. And I think that’s what he’s referring to here, even if the situation wasn’t originally chosen, but it can be lived that way. He says, the unmarried are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord, how to be holy, in body and spirit. And so he says, this can be a path of undivided devotion to the Lord, of loving Him with our whole heart. And so being unmarried is not renouncing love, that it can be actually choosing the fullness of love. And it also is a path to the Lord, a path of the cross, but a path to heaven. And so both these paths, when they’re lived for the Lord, go to the same end, the union with God and heaven. And so this is this message is for all and I mentioned, for instance, for those, because this is something very, very much in our present society, for those experiences, same self, same sex attraction. And that can be a very painful cross. But it can also be lived as part of this path to the Lord. All of us are wounded by sin. But all of us also, as St. Paul says, and is in the same chapter says, Each person has his own special gift from God, one of one kind, and one of another. And so all the circumstances of our life, even difficult circumstances, if we offer those to the Lord, and live them in fidelity to the Lord, they become part of this living with undivided devotion to the Lord. Because we’re living times right now of great tribulation, great tribulation, great suffering, great confusion, but also of great potential. And the Lord has great designs of mercy, and grace for these difficult times. And so he’s calling us to heroic paths today, of holiness, paths of greatness, of glory, of the glory of divine intimacy. And which all our human struggles, which are so intense today, will be gone, and all that will remain from them will be the fidelity and the sacrifice that we made to prepare ourselves for divine intimacy. And so St. Paul’s inviting us to turn our eyes to Jesus, to keep our eyes on Jesus when He speaks of our undivided devotion to the Lord. And that’s what can happen with the cross. The cross that all of us experience in different ways. That cross can be what transforms us, like a holocaust, in preparing us and transforming us for this union with God. And so whatever situation that we’re in, all of us are called to this union, infinite union of joy that God has destined us for, to live for the Lord here on this difficult bit short time on earth, so to rejoice with Him forever, in the fullness of His glory in heaven. And so, right now during this Mass, especially during the offertory, which will come up in a few minutes, there can be an opportunity for us to offer ourselves to the Lord. Whatever situation we’re in, with all its challenges, with all that sacrifices we can offer that to the Lord in this Mass making that our gift to Him and preparing us already in this Mass for the moment of Holy Communion, which itself is a preparation for the wedding feast of the lamb. Blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
1 Corinthians 7:32-35