Reversal of Fortune in the Future, Not Now

Homily for Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

About midway in today’s first reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he includes a rhetorically effective catalog of the circumstances of apostolic existence, in the course of which Paul ironically contrasts his own sufferings with the Corinthians’ illusion that they have passed beyond the folly of the passion and have already reached the condition of glory. One commentary actually referred to these words as St. Paul at his sarcastic best:

“We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute.” 

His language echoes that of the beatitudes and woes, which assert a future reversal of present conditions. Their present sufferings place the apostles in the class of those to whom the beatitudes promise future relief; whereas the Corinthians’ image of themselves – as “already” filled, rich, ruling, as wise, strong, and honored – places them paradoxically in the position of those whom the woes threaten with future undoing. They have lost sight of the fact that the reversal is predicted for the future.

After he roundly criticizes them, he takes on the voice of a loving father who not only gives his children life but also educates them. Once he has begotten them through his preaching, Paul continues to present the Gospel to them existentially, by his life as well as by his word, and they are to learn, as children do, by imitating their parents.

Though St. Paul has shown a willingness to suffer, go hungry and thirsty, and be poorly treated for Christ’s sake, he does not give us a picture of one who embraces this condition eagerly, without struggle. None of us should expect it to be easy. What Jesus asks of us in the way of turning the other cheek is nothing natural or easy. Our own experience should tell us that such virtue is only learned slowly and haltingly. The Christian spirit is based on the realization of Christ’s demanding ideals. We need to put before God our inability to be so forgiving and humble, and trust in the forgiveness which is, after all, God’s specialty, something God does better than we do.