Word to the Wise
Monday, September 6, 2010 - Monday in the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Corinthians 5:1-8 and Luke 6:6-11]Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The port city of Corinth was a legend in its own time for the variety of exotic experiences available to visitors! St. Paul managed to get a Christian community going there, but his letters to them reveal that fidelity to Christian standards of morality was not easily maintained! In today's section from First Corinthians, he attacks the community for allowing an incestuous relationship to go on involving some members! Where such dramatic conduct is taking place, corrective measures have to be pretty strong, but it's not just a matter of the individuals involved, there's the whole Christian perspective on life. This is where the yeast/dough image comes in. It's hard for folks who have been accustomed to some pretty seamy lifestyles to turn things around almost immediately! But that's what Paul is saying! As one who likes to bake bread, I can appreciate just how radical his command is. One doesn't just clear out old yeast from a batch of dough. That's like trying to take salt out of food once it's added! In Paul's day, some of the old dough was saved to be used in leavening a new batch (sort of like the sour mash method for Bourbon whiskey in Kentucky). Paul is suggesting in his image that a whole new batch of dough be started and mixed as on the night of the Exodus when the "paschal lamb" was slain and eaten with unleavened bread! Future leavening would come from a new yeast working with new dough of "sincerity and truth." In short, the Corinthians were being told that they had to start all over again with life! Then, as now, the project was difficult, especially when one is surrounded with a city "that care forgot!" The advent of the internet has brought Corinth into every home! It takes considerable moral fiber to resist the temptations available at one's fingertips on a keyboard! I mention this only because we could easily "dismiss" today's lesson as something ancient that St. Paul was dealing with. We can all go to Corinth without leaving our keyboard! It is a test of "sincerity and truth." Too bad St. Paul didn't have e-mail! Happy Labor Day! AMEN
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