TROUBLEMAKERS IN CORINTH!
Feb. 14, 2004ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ 6th Sunday of Year C
St. Patrickís parish is in
Kowloon, Hong Kong.Ý There are four
weekend Masses including a childrenís Mass at 10:45, Sunday.Ý This is the parish where I was formerly
pastor.ÝÝ Always great to hear from
you.Ý ([email protected] ÝÝCf.
also: www.acpp.org under ìLibrary îÝ for our Social Concernsí teaching
material--Ý Fr. Gene Thalman M.M.]
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ AtÝ one time or another, I am sure all of us in Hong Kong have lived near the construction site of a tall apartment block?Ý Itís a real nuisance!Ý What is the most disturbing period of the building process?Ý The piling. Boom! Boom! All day!Ý It is annoying but necessary for every building to have a firm foundation.Ý Without a stable foundation the most beautifully constructed building sooner or later will come crumbling down.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ The teachings of our Faith are like a beautifully constructed skyscraper reaching to the heavens. But it is good to step back from time to time and inspect the foundation of our Faith. Paul tells us that without this foundation, everything we believe would collapse.
In his fifteenth chapter to the Paul reminds the Corinthian community and ours of the foundation upon which Christian Faith rests.
The early Christians had a concise foundation.Ý The foundation was expressed in a one line Creed. This first Christian Creed was very easy to memorize:
GODíS POINT OF
VIEW:
ìChrist died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried and, in accordance with the Scriptures, rose on the third dayÖ.îÝÝ 1 Cor: 15: 3-4 (NAB)
At the death of Jesus his followers were devastated.Ý Jesus was a good person.Ý He healed the sick.Ý He gave some inspiring sermons. But he was dead. Dead!Ý Dead! Some of his followers returned to their former way of life. Others stayed in Jerusalem holding hands and wallowing in their grief.
And then something happened.Ý These followers had an experience. They testified that they seen, heard and touched the Risen Christ.Ý They were convinced it wasnít a ghost but a glorious person with real skin, bones and blood.Ý It was the Risen Christ!
ì..he was seen by Cephas, then by the
twelve.Ý After that he was seen by five
hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still aliveÖÝ Next he was seen by, then by all the
apostles.Ý Ö Last of all he was seen by
meÖî 1 Cor. 15: 5-8. [NAB]
Ý
Over five hundred witnesses had this same
experience. More
importantly each of them was changed
from deep inside by this meeting with the Risen Christ.Ý After the experience they were at peace,
full of hope and love for all.Ý They
lived in a new way.ÝÝ They publicly
professed their Faith.Ý They suffered
persecution and even deathóall because they they would not deny that they had
met the Risen Christ.
In todayís reading we see that the Christian
community in Corinth had a dispute. There was clique of arrogant ìsmart alecksî
causing confusion.Ý They agreed with
Paul that Jesus was raised from the dead.Ý
They agreed with Paul that the Risen Christ had a glorious body which
included flesh, bones and skin.
However these Corinthians troublemakers said
that it was impossible that human beings could be raised from the
dead. ìWhen somebody is dead, he/she is dead as a doornail!îÝ They may have thought as did many
non-Christians of that time (and perhaps many people right here in Wang Tau
Hom) that after death ìsomething of the dead person remained-- shadows living
in a dark musty gigantic pit called ìSheolî. Both the dissidents and Paul would
agree that the life of a shadow, couldnít really be called ìlivingî.Ý Being a ìshadow in Sheolî was no holiday
with friends in Hawaii. (Xavier Leon-Dufour, ed., trans.Ý P. Joseph Cahill S.J.Ý Biblical
Dictionary (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1967), Dufour p. 93).Ý
These Christian heretics taught something
like this:Ý ìWhen Christians die they
donít rise bodily like Christ, they just float around like shadows or are
annilhilated.î
Paul responds by saying: ìSince Jesus was not
only truly divine, he was also truly human. Therefore it was certainly not impossible that a human person could also rise from the dead.Ý Christ was human.Ý He was raised from the dead.
Later in this chapter verses 21 and 22, Paul
uses the following argument to prove that human beings can likewise rise from
the dead.Ý Paul says:Ý ìYou, blockheads, would certainly agree that
Christ was much greater than Adam.Ý Well
Adam brought sin and death into the world of humankind.Ý These Corinthians took it for granted that
Christ was much greater than Adam. So Paul says: ìIf Christ could not conquer
sin and death, it would mean that Adam was more powerful than Christ.îÝ
Paul says in verse 20, the final verse that
we have read this morning:
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ
ìBut as it is, Christ is now raised from the dead,
the first fruits
of those who have fallen asleep.î 1 Cor 15: 20. (NAB)
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Paul makes an important point with the words ìfirst fruitsî.Ý The ìfirst fruitsî of the harvest means that there are more ìfruitsî to followóthatís us!Ý Christ wouldnít have been the ìfirst fruitsî if there were no ìfruitsî to follow.
Ý
But
there is more. The most important part of Christís resurrection is that he does
not bodily reside someplace in the sky.Ý
Through the eyes of Faith, we know that the whole Christódivine, human
and corporeallyóis with us.Ý We
experience this presence of the Risen Christ in many ways but especially in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist.Ý How could
someone who in his whole person both spirit and body, consumed the whole Risen
Christ, rot away forever in a grave or float around like a shadow! Like Christ
we will be a complete and whole person.Ý
Anything less would mean that Christ would not have equaled and outdone
Adamís fiasco.
Ý SUMMARYÝ Supposing
it happens that this very week someone
asks us: ìWhat do you Catholics believe.î We tell them that the foundation of
our Faith is: ìChrist died for our sinsÖhe was buriedÖand rose on the third
day.î He was seen, heard and touched by his followers.Ý His followers so strongly believed that they
had encountered the Risen Jesus that they preferred death rather than to
profess otherwise. More importantly through the eyes of Faith, we, Christians
have experiences in which we, too, encounter the Risen Christ. We Christians
believe that the Risen Christ is always with us. Sometimes we have very special
experiences of his presence.Ý This
happens in many ways throughout our day but especially when we gather together
to celebrate the Eucharist and receive the body and blood, the Christ, the
Risen Lord in Communion.Ý
OUR RESPONSE I hope by now you are drooling and wanting to run home, tear open your
bibles to the fifteen chapter of Paulís letter to the Corinthians. It is the
foundation teaching of our Faith.
ÝHow
many here are over sixty?Ý How many of
you have pains and aches and malfunctioning organs?Ý If it is not too painful raise your hand.Ý I am sure that you will get a real kick out
of reading what Paul says about our Risen life.Ý If grandma or grandpa canít read, read it to them.Ý I bet it will make their day!
Feb. 14, 2004ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ 6th Sunday of Year C
TWO WORDS: Resurrection Foundation of our Faith
TEXT: ìBut in fact Christ has been raised from the
dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.î
Ý
THEME:Ý Christís
Resurrection is the foundational experience of our Faith.
DESIRED RESULT:Ý
I experienced several times during the past week the person of the Risen
Christ.Ý The highpoint was at this
morningís Eucharist.
During the past week I carefully read, reread
and reread chapter fifteen.Ý I thought
of death.Ý I remembered my family
members and friends who have died.Ý And
I felt good.Ý
REFERENCES:
1.ÝÝÝÝÝ Division of 1 Cor: 15:
15:ÝÝ 1-11ÝÝÝ Resurrection of Christ
15: 12-34ÝÝ The resurrection of believers
15: 35-58ÝÝ The "how" of bodily resurrection.
Jan Lambrecht,
ìI Corinthiansî, William R. Farmer (ed.), The International Commentary,
(Collegeville, Minn: The Liturgical Press, 1998) p. 1627.
2.ÝÝÝÝÝ ì[verse] 20 first
fruitsÝ ÝThis denotes more than first in time.Ý It is a Jewish cultic
term.Ý The offering of the aparche (first fruits) was the symbol of the dedication of the entire harvest to God.Ý So, the resurrection of Christ involves the resurrection of all who are in him.îÝ Richard Kugelman, ìThe First Letter to the Corinthiansî, Raymond E. Brown et al, Jerome Biblical Commentary, (Englewood, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968) Vol. II, p. 273).Ý The logic is that if Christ is the ìfirst fruitsî then there are more of us to come!
3. ìOur bodiliness also is the natural basis for our solidarity with
others and through
them with God.Ý We are human insofar as we are oriented toward others.Ý And our orientation toward others is made
possible and necessary by our bodiliness.Ý
The doctrine of the resurrection of the body is the foundation
for the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. Thus life after death is communal
life.Ý And thus, too, the resurrection
of the body cannot be achieved until the consummation of history itself.îÝ Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism Study
Edition, (Minneapolis, MN: Winston Press, 1981) p.1150.
4.Ý ìIt is alarming, therefore,
that there is a crisis of resurrection faith among people
who claim the name ëChristianí Objective
surveys made in certain countries among church-going Christians prove that
about 70% of these Christian [sic] not really believe in Christís
resurrection.Ý In one particular country
a survey was made among students of CatholicÝ Ýcolleges (students
who had received regular religious instruction for no less than 12).Ý It appeared that 70% of them did not believe
in the resurrection of Christ as an event in no matter what sense. ëThe
Resurrection of Jesus,í so writes a Catholic teenager student, ëmeans to me
that his idea of a life of service to others is still alive today.íîÝÝ John Linskens, ìThe Foundational Experience
of the Early Christian Movementî RPT 115 (Manila: East Asian Pastoral
Institute, 1977) pp. 1-2.
ìWe said that is also and foremost
an internal event.Ý We certainly do not
want to say that Jesus just rose in the faith of his followers.Ý Something happened to Him first before
something happened to his followers: He was raised from the dead by God, but
then this resurrection was revealed to the disciples, which meant a
total change taking place in them.îÝ
Ibid. p. 4.
5. ìAccordingÝ to the belief
ofÝÝ primitiveÝÝ peoples,Ý longÝÝ conservedÝ
in theÝ OT.Ý Death
is, nevertheless, not total
annihilation.Ý While the body is placed
in an earthen grave, something of the dead person, a shadow, persists in Sheol.
ÖThere all the dead share the same miserable lot.î Xavier
Leon-Dufour,Ý ed.,Ý trans.Ý
P. Joseph Cahill S.J.Ý Biblical Dictionary (London: Geoffrey
Chapman, 1967), p. 93).Ý
Feb. 14, 2004ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ 6th Sunday of Year C
nAME_________ Grade_____________
1.Ý __T/FÝ
Some of the Corinthians denied that Jesus was raised from the dead.
2.ÝÝ Paul
reminds us that by the wordsÝ
"f_______ÝÝÝ f_______î that
we too are invited toÝ follow Jesus in
ÝÝÝÝÝ being
raised from the dead.
3.ÝÝ How
might a Hong Kong person who observes popular religious practices (ìbaai shanî)
describe
ÝÝÝÝÝ
existence after death ?
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ
_____________________________________________________________________________Ý
4.Ý How might
a Hong Kong practicing Buddhist describe existence after death?
_____________________________________________________________________________
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ __________________________________________________________________________
5.Ý How might
a Hong KongÝ teenager describe existence
after death?