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PAGE 5—July 22, 1976
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Paul And Corinth
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BY STEVE LANDREGAN
SCOLDING -- Mary Maher tells of an incident outside a San to do that’ and ‘your dignity’ filtered through me with great
Francisco adult movie where her uncle scolded the scantily-clad puzzlement,” she writes. Later he told her, “Unless some people
girls who were inviting customers inside. “Words like ‘too good are scolded, they don’t know what care means.” (NC Photo)
BY MARY MAHER
The most unlikely place in the
Graeco-Roman world for Christianity to take
root and thrive was Corinth, a cosmopolitan,
commercial, port city at the crossroads of the
Empire. The city’s reputation for immorality
and licentiousness was so great that the
expression to “live as a Corinthian” was used to
describe a dissolute life and the common
description of a prostitute was “a Corinthian
girl.”
Yet Corinth became the site of one of Paul’s
most successful and troublesome foundations
(Acts 18: 1-17). Fresh from failure and ridicule
in Athens (Acts 17: 23-24), Paul found ready
listeners among Corinthians who responded
enthusiastically to the Gospel of love and hope
which was in stark contrast to the debauchery
and human indignity of their surroundings.
It was no easy task to live as a Christian in
the midst of a city like Corinth and Paul
suffered much over the pastoral problems that
plagued his converts as they tried to cope with
the temptations and pressures of a pagan world.
First Corinthians was in fact Paul’s second
letter to the church at Corinth, but the first
letter (I Cor 5:9) has been lost.
Like First Corinthians, the earlier letter was
probably written from Ephesus in Asia (modern
Turkey) where he spent about three years. In
that letter, Paul tells us, he warned the
Corinthians about associating with backsliders,
members of the community who had returned
to pagan ways.
The earlier letter raised a number of
questions among the new Christians who put
them into a letter of their own which was
carried personally to Paul in Ephesus by elders
of the Corinthian church (I Cor 16: 15-18).
The reader of First Corinthians cannot help
but be struck by the timelessness of the
pastoral problems Paul deals with, problems
that beset every Christian and every Christian
community in every age: moral indifferentism;
attempts to justify pagan moral standards;
apathy toward immorality in their midst;
factionalism; the presence within the
community of radicals and reactionaries;
members resorting to pagan courts instead of
Christian charity to resolve their disputes; abuse
of charismatic gifts and even division among the
community at the Eucharist.
Paul’s letter was an attempt to bring some
order out of chaos. “Has Christ been divided
into parts?” (1:13) he asks as he pleads for an
end to factionalism. He chides them for their
spiritual immaturity (3:2) demonstrated by
their childish jealousy and quarrels, and tells
them, “I am writing you in this way not to
shame you but to admonish you as my beloved
children” (4:14).
Sexual immorality was a hallmark of
Corinth, where 1,000 sacred prostitutes, served
in the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of
love. To those Christians who had succumbed
to the rites of sacred prostitution, Paul writes:
“Do you not see that your bodies are members
of Christ? Would you have me take Christ’s
members and make them the members of a
prostitute? God forbid. Can you not’see that
the man who is joined to a prostitute becomes
one body with her?” (6: 15-16).
BY FATHER ALFRED MCBRIDE, O. PRAEM.
The story of Judith (her name means
“Jewess”) was a popular one at Passover time
since it is basically a liberation story. Just as
Egypt threatened to enslave and destroy the
Jewish People, so now the world’s mightiest
empire is again about to snuff them out in the
person of general Holofernes. But just as God
raised up Moses the valiant man to save the
people at the Exodus, so now God raises up
Judith the valiant woman to save the people at
an Exodus experience revisited.
Scholars claim that since we cannot locate
the underlying historical details and backdrop
for this narrative, it is best to concentrate on its
religious importance as an inspirational
reinforcement of the continual providing
presence of the Lord in the affairs of his
believing and worshiping people. It is a story
that once again dramatizes the work of the
saving God of the Exodus and lends special
meaning to the celebration of Passover as well
as for the work of Christ whose ultimate work
of salvation we celebrate in Easter and
Eucharist.
Christ surfaces often: in his description of the
Eucharist, “Is not the cup of blessing we bless a
sharing in the blood of Christ? And is not the
bread we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one, we many
though we are, are one body, for we all partake
of the one loaf” (10: 16-17) and again in his
discourse on the use of spiritual gifts where he
reminds the Corinthians that “The body is one
and has many members, but all the members,
many though they are, are one body; and so it
is with Christ” (12:12) “You then, are the
body of Christ. Every one of you is a member
of it” (12:27).
The letter reaches a high point as Paul pleads
with his spiritual children to seek first love, not
the selfish and demanding love of the pagan but
the unselfish and forgiving love of Christ (I Cor
13).
He climaxes his pastoral message with the
promise of eternal life contained in the
Resurrection of Jesus with a reminder that
“The trumpet will sound and the dead will be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
This corruptible body must be clothed with
incorruptibility, this mortal body with
immortality. When the corruptible frame takes
on incorruptibility and mortal immortality,
then will the saying of Scripture be fulfilled:
‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Oh death,
where is your victory? 0 death where is your
sting.’” (15: 52-54).
First Corinthians must have accomplished
what Paul set out to do because Second
Corinthians hardly mentions the serious
problems taken up in the first letter.
There were, however, new problems. The
most serious of which appears to have been the
presence at Corinth of what Paul calls “super
apostles” (11:5) who were undermining his
authority.
Paul apparently made a short visit to Corinth
to confront his detractors but left without
completely resolving the situation. He returned
to Ephesus but promised to come back to
Corinth for a longer stay and deal once and for
all with the problem.
The situation, however, evidently became
much worse and Paul wrote another letter “in
great sorrow and anguish, with copious tears -
not to make you sad but to help you realize the
great love I bear you” (2:4). Like the earlier
letter the text of this letter has been lost.
Paul also dispatched Titus to Corinth to act
as his representative but before Titus could
report back, Paul was forced to flee Ephesus
after the riot of silversmiths (Acts 19: 23-40).
When he finally met Titus in Macedonia, Paul
received the news that the Corinthians had
responded to his tearful letter in sorrow and
submission.
Paul immediately wrote another letter
(Second Corinthians) in which he expressed his
joy at their reconciliation, writing “If I
saddened you by my letter I have no regrets. Or
if I did feel some regret (because I understand
that the letter caused you grief for a time), I am
happy once again; not because you were
saddened, but because your sadness led to
repentance” (7: 8-9).
In First and Second Corinthians Paul shows
the gentle but firm hand of a loving pastor
confronting the problems of a flock trying to
live in Gospel of unselfish love in a hostile and
pagan world.
The symbolic significance of Judith as a
woman deeply involved in the work of salvation
is seen in the Christian preference for applying
to the Virgin Mary, the words of praise used for
Judith.
“You are the glory of Jerusalem, the
surpassing joy of Israel; you are the splendid
boast of our people.” (Judith 15,9)
While granting that all comparisons limp,
there are links between Judith and Mary. Judith
vows perpetual virginity after the death of her
first husband. Mary is ever a virgin. Like a Joan
of Arc, Judith leads the Jewish army to a
splendid victory over a presumed
unconquerable enemy. Mary is a spiritual Joan
of Arc, not resorting to violence, but the
peaceful spiritual weapons of grace to fight
against the principalities and powers of evil.
Judith takes a sword and beheads the very
personification of evil, the general Holofernes
intent on destroying her people.
Mary is pictured as a valiant warrior
overcoming Satan, the center of evil. Chapter
12 of the Book of Revelation describes Mary
giving birth to her son, while a dragon of evil
Scolding is funny business. It can be a proof
of love or an outlet for frustration. Most of us
who are either parents or educators have
scolded. We have been scolded. Whatever the
motive for that scolding it has often been
justified by the expression, “But, I’m doing it
for your own good.”
I recall a few years ago going to see San
Francisco with my Uncle Charley, an Irish sea
captain who was a native of that city. We
toured a whole day and then decided to stop to
eat. Where we stopped was near an adult movie
theatre, a setting surely not unlike that which
Paul roundly scolded in Corinth. I was not sure
what was happening when I heard Charley
scolding the scantily-clad girls who were
inviting customers into their place of business.
Words like “too good to do that” and “your
dignity” filtered through me with great
puzzlement. Charley was neither an evangelist
waits to consume Him. Miachel (one who is like
God) makes war against his dragon and drives
him away. It is her Son who is the ultimate
weapon against this evil and in his triumph over
evil assures all people the confidence that sin
shall not prevail:
“Worthy is the lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches, wisdom and
strength, honor glory and praise! . ..
Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, which
made all the nations drink the poisoned wine
of her lewdness! . . .
Alleluia! The Lord is king, our God the
almighty!” Rev. 5, 12; 14, 8; 19, 6
Through the daughter of Israel, Judith,
salvation came to the people. Through the new
daughter of the new Israel, Mary, salvation
comes by her son Jesus. Judith conquered
Babylon, the secular kingdom of evil. Jesus is
victorious over Babylon, the spiritual kingdom
of evil.
This biblical method of teaching salvation in
poetic comparisons may fall strangely on our
ears, yet it is not really all that strange. People
are forever noting coincidences in history and
using past events to interpret new ones. This is
especially so in the world of politics and
history. When McGovern was running, he was
called by the columnists the “Goldwater of the
left,” implying by the comparison that
McGovern will stumble on extreme leftist
statements just as Goldwater did with extreme
rightist ones.
Think of all the preachers and commentators
who love to use the Fall of the Roman empire
as a morality tale to interpret the present
corruption. Every comparison has its weakness
and strength. Its strong point is that it uses an
old event to throw light on a new one. Its
weakness is that it ignores the details that do
not fit in the parallel.
The Judith story is a parable of salvation. Its
weakness is that it is salvation by the sword. Its
strength is that it does point up the ultimate
weapon of salvation is spiritual power coming
from God. It is upon that strength that we
place our hope.
nor a moralist by nature or grace. His scolding
style was basically bad. It struck me how funny
that this man would publicly scold others
whom he did not know. Later as we were riding
home, I finally asked him, “Charley, why did
you scold her?”
His answer came, staccato-like, out of some
deep conviction which he held, “Unless some
people are scolded, they don’t know what care
means.”
I wish that his statement were not true but
perhaps it is. I do not know why Paul scolded
the Corinthians so roughly one minute and then
so tenderly told them of his love for them the
next. At least, so the Pauline writers present it.
He may have needed to scold them for his own
sake - he was relatively new to the task of
explaining the moral terms of the Gospel. He
sounds often very self-righteous and arrogant.
Yet the tenderness of his concern for these
people is also evident. He seems, when he writes
to Corinth, to be at a point in his own life
where his zeal over his own conversion is
transferred over to everyone else. This is
sometimes the case or tone of conversion:
People are so enthusiastic that they demand
behaviour like their own from everyone else.
Paul becomes more compassionate towards
human failure in the years which follow. He
mellows. He never becomes more tolerant of
evil however. His later scolding will carry a
more tender quality, a way of saying, “I
HOLOFERNES, commanding the
Assyrian forces, waged an assault on a
stubborn Jewish people at Bethulia.
After a seige of 34 days, the Jews, who
had been cut off from their water
supply, were exhausted and ready to
surrender. In an effort to save her
people, Judith used her beauty, charm
understand what it means to be weak, to fail.”
Most of us can take scolding if we know that
we are loved. We can take enormous correction
of our behavior if we know that we are asked to
improve for our own betterment and not
simply to minimize our being a pain-in-the-neck
to the person who scolds us.
Paul comes off in the books of Corinthians
looking like one of the harsh schoolmasters
with whom James Joyce had his literary wars.
Yet we do need to ask why he is as he is. Paul
came from a background where law was the
prime consideration of goodness and where
inner oneness with Yahweh was seen in the
observance of the moral code down to the
finest letter. The law assured a person that
Yahweh was with him. It is not surprising that
Paul’s conversion to Christ left him with this
deep-rooted attitude that punishment would
accompany loose living and disregard of law. It
is lucky for us that Paul did stress this respect
for moral la v and the limits of human behavior,
for such stress is essential also to Christian
faith. Without it we might find ourselves the
recipients of a faith which meant little more
than good will and sanquine sincerity.
We may not be able to take too much of
Paul’s scolding style but somehow in God’s plan
it does come out as great concern for us. It may
be true, as my Uncle Charley thought, that
there is a part in each of us that knows it is
loved only when it is scolded.
and cunning to gain entry to
Holofernes’ tent where she cut off his
head with his own sword. Father Alfred
McBride explains how the story of
Judith is a triumph of good over evil.
(NC Photo from the Catholic
Encyclopedia for School and Home,
courtesy Grolier, Inc.)
Know
Your Faith
,AII les On T s Page Copyrighted 1976 by N.C. News Service)
Paul’s theology of the Church as the Body of
Judith: An Old Testament Joan Of Arc