My dear brothers and sisters, in today’s readings we are reminded of the supernatural and heroic virtues we are called to embrace as Christ’s disciples.
In the first reading, Saint Paul reminds the people of Corinth who had now come to Christ, that there is but one God, so that all other false deities and idols, are but mere counterfeits to the real and the singularly absolute. Yet, some of the newer converts were still struggling with letting go of their former practices in which they worshipped these false God’s, offering to them sacrifices which indeed ought only to have been offered to God.
One of those practices was offering food to idols. In ancient Corinth, it was common for meat to be sacrificed in temples to idols as part of religious rituals. After these sacrifices, the meat would often be sold in the marketplace or served at feasts. Eating this meat could be seen as participating in the worship of those idols.
Many Corinthians, including both Gentile converts and some Jewish believers, faced pressure to participate in the social events that involved idol feasting. For many, refusing to partake could mean social ostracism or missing out on community and cultural events.
Among the believers, there was a theological debate about whether it was acceptable to eat food sacrificed to idols. Some argued that since idols were not real gods, the food was simply meat and could be eaten without spiritual consequences. Others believed that consuming such food would imply participation in idol worship, which was a serious concern for maintaining purity in Christian faith.
While Paul felt that there was indeed no sin in eating that meat, but nevertheless required from the believer a mature faith, so that the newly converted needed time to mature without being scandalized to the extend that they renounce that newfound faith. His warning to the “knowledgeable” is severe:
“Thus, through your knowledge, the weak person is brought to destruction, the brother for whom Christ died. When you sin in this way against your brothers and wound their consciences, weak as they are, you are sinning against Christ.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus lays down the reasoning which would later influence Paul to preach and require the above pastoral approach in caring for newborns in Christ: heroism. It takes a courageous soul to refrain from eating the meat that had once been offered to false idols, not because it is sinful, but because it would scandalize the new brothers and sisters who had just joined the Church a to show a delicacy towards them so as to allow them the time to mature in their faith. The meat is precious, it’s costly, it’s perfectly fine and delicious, yet if my eating will injure the faith of another, I will refrain. The newcomers to the faith would have to one day embrace Jesus’ teaching that nothing which enters a man will make them unclean, but rather what comes out of man, from the human heart. But it takes time. It’s a journey.
Jesus reminds us in today’s gospel, that this kind of generosity will be rewarded by God; “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” Let us therefore ask the Lord to give us the prudence to know, that even if we are not engaged in scandalous behaviour, we also have to be on guard against giving even the appearance of scandal if we know that this will detriment the faith of our brothers and sisters. This too is an act of charity which is pleasing to the Lord. Saint Joseph, Pure in Heart, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.
Add comment
Comments