St. Paul’s Remedy for Disunity
by Fr. David M. Knight
Monday, September 16, 2024
Twenty-Fourth Week of the Year
Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs
Lectionary 443
1 Cor 11:17-26, 33/Lk 7:1-10
When people assembled for Mass in the early Church, it was in the context of a communal meal. Some got so focused on eating that they forgot the sacred meaning and purpose of what they were doing; so much so that Paul tells them in 1Corinthians 11:17-33 “your meetings are doing more harm than good.” Paul is trying to bring about a “reform of the liturgy” on the local level. The key problem is that the people are not aware of themselves as a community united to do the same thing together.
There are factions: “First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you.” There is individualism: “When you assemble, it is not to eat the Lord's supper, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else.” And waiting seems to be a key to it. Paul concludes: “So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.”
Unity is shown in time by acting in unison (making the responses, singing together); in space by sitting together. Our “factions” appear when those who do not want to participate fully sit in the back and don’t sing, while the more involved sit up front. When a congregation does not appear to be gathered to celebrate together something they are all enthusiastic about, there are some to whom Mass may be “doing more harm than good.” One third of American Catholics no longer come to Mass. Those who have become Protestant say it is because their “spiritual needs were not being met” in the Catholic church; in particular at Sunday Mass
Paul’s remedy is to focus us on the mystery we are celebrating: “Every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” At Mass we are present to Christ offering himself on the cross. And we, if we are taking that “full, conscious, and active part” in the Mass “to which the Christian people... have a right and to which they are bound by reason of their Baptism” are offering ourselves with him and in him as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a redeemed people.”
We just must be aware.
Sometimes non-Catholic guests at Mass show more reverence than Catholics. Like the Roman centurion in Luke 7:1-10, they may not understand it all, but they have a sense of the mystery which familiarity has made Catholics forget. Faith must be expressed to stay alive.
Initiative: Reform the liturgy, beginning with your own participation.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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