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From: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Recourse to Pagan Courts

[1] When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go
to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? [2] Do you not
know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be
judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? [3] Do you not
know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to
this life! [4] If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before
those who are least esteemed by the church? [5] I say this to your
shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide
between members of the brotherhood, [6] but brother goes to law against
brother, and that before unbelievers?

[7] To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not
rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? [8] But you
yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren.

[9] Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor homosexuals, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
[11] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
in the Spirit of our God.

Commentary:

1-6. As usually happens in his letters, in the course of dealing with
some more or less important event in the Christian community, the
Apostle moves on to a much higher plane, and from there focuses light
onto the particular problem.

In this case, the scandal is that Christians are involved in lawsuits
against one another (v. 7) and are bringing these cases before pagan
courts instead of trying to settle them within the sphere of the
Church; Paul, as we can see, is quite incensed: "How dare any of your
members..."

Through Baptism, Christians are become holy, justified; that is, they
have obtained a share in the life and virtues of Christ and are called
to follow his example. Furthermore, like the Apostles (cf. Mt 19:28; Lk
22:30), Christians will judge men and angels on the Last Day. They are,
therefore, instruments of and witnesses to divine justice. So, they
really should not go to law against each other; and if they do have
grievances the Christian community itself should provide people who are
equipped to act as arbitrators and have the grace of state to solve the
problems that arise. St Paul is not down-playing civil authority and
its autonomy, for all authority comes from God (Rom 13:1-5); he himself
submitted to Roman tribunals, and he even appealed to Caesar (cf. Acts
25:11-12). The specific advice he gives here--that Christians should
not bring cases before pagan court--ties in with Jewish practice.
Primarily, the Apostle is recommending to Christians to practice
fraternity and solve disagreements without going to pagan courts.

Moreover, going to law would be a great disservice to the Gospel: what
attraction could a community hold which was divided within itself?
[7] It is this grave scandal that he particularly wants to avoid.

3. The only Judge of the living and the dead, of angels and men, is
Jesus Christ. Christians are so intimately linked to Christ that St
Paul sees no objections to attributing the actions of the head to all
the members. Therefore, he does not attempt to speculate on the
particular form the Last Judgment will take--whether, for example, men
will judge angels or at least the fallen angels. His aim here may be
simply to emphasize the intimate union of the Christian with Christ,
which ought to be reflected in just dealings with one another.

7-8. This is the reason why St Paul is so hard on the Corinthians. They
have failed to understand and to apply what our Lord said in the Sermon
on the Mount about bearing injuries (Mt 5:39-42). Worse still, they
have gone to law against each other in contravention of the standard
set by those early Christians, who had one heart and soul (cf. Acts
4:32). And they have tried to solve their disagreements in pagan courts
which know nothing of Christian brotherhood. St John Chrysostom points
out the transgressions the Corinthians are guilty of: "For one thing,
not bearing injuries patiently; for another, offending others; then
looking for arbitrators to decide on the matter, finally, using this
procedure in a dispute with a Christian, a brother in the faith" ("Hom.
on 1 Cor, ad loc.").

St Paul's advice about money can usefully be read in the light of
Romans 12:17-21: this shows us that he is not saying that a passive and
weak attitude to difficulties is the right one: difficulties should be
faced and an effort made to do positive good, at all times, to
everyone.

"Let us especially resolve not to judge others, not to doubt their good
will, to drown evil in an abundance of good, sowing loyal friendship
justice and peace all around us. And let us resolve never to become sad
if our upright conduct is misunderstood by others; if the good which,
with the continuous help of our Lord, we try to accomplish is
misinterpreted by people who delight in unjustly guessing at our
motives and who accuse us of wicked designs and deceitful behavior. Let
us forgive always, with a smile on our lips. Let us speak clearly,
without hard feelings, when in conscience we think we ought to speak.
And let us leave everything in the hands of our Father God, with a
divine silence--Jesus was silent' (Mt 26:63--if we are confronted with
personal attacks, no matter how brutal and shameful they might be. Let
us concern ourselves only with doing good deeds: God will see to it
that they shine before men (Mt 5:16)" ("Christ Is Passing By", 72).

9-10. In this list of sins, similar to that given in the previous
chapter (cf. 1 Cor 5:10-11), St Paul explicitly teaches that those who
commit these sins will not inherit the Kingdom, that is, will not
attain eternal salvation. The whole list is a kind of explanation of
what "unrighteousness" means. Thus, not only those go against
righteousness who wrongly go to law or defraud others: righteousness,
justice, in the language of the Bible is equivalent to holiness and
therefore is opposed to every kind of sin.

"Do not be deceived": the Greek can also be translated as "Do not let
yourselves be deceived" (cf. Eph 5 :5-6). Certainly, to make out that
such actions are good is worse than to commit them. And yet in Corinth,
and in other places at other times, there have been and are false
ideologies which interpret sinfulness as virtue. To combat tendencies
that seek to tone down or deny the reality of grave sin, the Church
points out that "a person sins mortally not only when his action comes
from direct contempt for love of God and neighbor, but also when he
consciously and freely, for whatever reason, chooses something which is
seriously disordered [...]. Pastors of souls must exercise patience and
generosity; but they are not allowed to render God's commandments null,
nor to reduce unreasonably people's responsibility" (SCDF, "Declaration
Concerning Sexual Ethics", 10). Like Christ, pastors should be
uncompromising with evil and merciful to evildoers.

11. This reminder about the dignity of Christians brings to an end this
series of warnings. It reminds the Corinthians of their Baptism, its
effects and their need to return to their initial holiness.

These last words clearly contain a reference to the Trinitarian formula
used at Baptism (cf. Mt 28:19). The inclusion of the name of the three
persons of the Blessed Trinity implies an act of faith in God, One and
Three, and recognition that grace and justification are given us by the
Father, have been merited by his Son Jesus Christ, and are applied to
us through the action of the Holy Spirit.

Three words sum up the effects of Baptism--"washed", "sanctified", and
"justified" (cf. Acts 22:16; Eph 5:16; Tit 3:5); in addition to erasing
original sin, and any personal sin, Baptism gives us sanctifying grace
and the infused virtues: "The followers of Christ, called by God not in
virtue of their works but by his design and grace, and justified in the
Lord Jesus, have been made sons of God in baptism, the sacrament of
faith, and partakers of the divine nature, and so are truly sanctified.
They must therefore hold on to and perfect in their lives that
sanctification which they have received from God" ("Lumen Gentium",
40).

Reminding them of baptismal innocence, St Paul encourages the
Corinthians to return to that state by a new conversion. After Baptism,
the sacrament of Penance received with the right dispositions restores
sanctifying grace and is, moreover, a means Christ chooses to conserve
men in grace and bring them growth in grace: "The sacrament of Penance
contributes [much] to the development of the Christian life" (Vatican
II, "Christus Dominus", 30).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Luke 6:12-19

The Calling of the Apostles

[12] In these days He (Jesus) went out into the hills to pray; and all
night He continued in prayer to God. [13] And when it was day, He
called His disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom He named
Apostles: [14] Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and
James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew, [15] and Matthew, and
Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the
Zealot, [16] and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became
a traitor.

The Sermon on the Mount

[17] And He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a
great crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all
Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to
hear Him and to be healed of their diseases; [18] and those who were
troubled with unclean spirits were cured. [19] And all the crowd
sought to touch Him, for power came forth from Him and healed them
all.

Commentary:

12-13. The evangelist writes with a certain formality when describing
this important occasion on which Jesus chooses the Twelve, constituting
them as the apostolic college: "The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length
to the Father, called to Himself those whom He willed and appointed
twelve to be with Him, whom He might send to preach the Kingdom of God
(cf. Mark 2:13-19; Matthew 10:1-42). These Apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) He
constituted in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head
of which He placed Peter, chosen from among them (cf. John 21:15-17).
He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all
peoples (cf. Romans 1:16), so that, sharing in His power, they might
make all peoples His disciples and sanctify and govern them (cf.
Matthew 28:16-20; and par.) and thus spread the Church and,
administering it under the guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days
until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20). They were fully
confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf. Act 2:1-26)
[...]. Through their preaching the Gospel everywhere (cf. Mark 16:20),
and through its being welcomed and received under the influence of the
Holy Spirit by those who hear it, the Apostles gather together the
universal Church, which the Lord founded upon the Apostles and built
upon Blessed Peter their leader, the chief cornerstone being Christ
Jesus Himself (cf. Revelation 21:14; Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 2:20).
That divine mission, which was committed by Christ to the Apostles, is
destined to last until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:20), since
the Gospel, which they were charged to hand on, is, for the Church, the
principle of all its life for all time. For that very reason the
Apostles were careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically
constituted society" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 19-20).

Before establishing the apostolic college, Jesus spent the whole night
in prayer. He often made special prayer for His Church (Luke 9:18;
John 17:1ff), thereby preparing His Apostles to be its pillars (cf.
Galatians 2:9). As His Passion approaches, He will pray to the Father
for Simon Peter, the head of the Church, and solemnly tell Peter that
He has done so: "But I have prayed for you that your faith may not
fail" (Luke 22:32). Following Christ's example, the Church stipulates
that on many occasions liturgical prayer should be offered for the
pastors of the Church (the Pope, the bishops in general, and priests)
asking God to give them grace to fulfill their ministry faithfully.

Christ is continually teaching us that we need to pray always (Luke
18:1). Here He shows us by His example that we should pray with
special intensity at important moments in our lives. "`Pernoctans in
oratione Dei. He spent the whole night in prayer to God.' So St.
Luke tells of our Lord. And you? How often have you persevered like
that? Well, then...." ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 104).

On the need for prayer and the qualities our prayer should have, see
the notes on Matthew 6:5-6; 7:7-11; 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16;
11:1-4; 22:41-42.

12. Since Jesus is God, why does He pray? There were two wills in
Christ, one divine and one human (cf. "St. Pius X Catechism", 91), and
although by virtue of His divine will He was omnipotent, His human will
was not omnipotent. When we pray, what we do is make our will known to
God; therefore Christ, who is like us in all things but sin (Hebrews
4:15), also had to pray in a human way (cf. "Summa Theologiae", III, q.
21, a. 1). Reflecting on Jesus at prayer, St. Ambrose comments: "The
Lord prays not to ask things for Himself, but to intercede on my
behalf; for although the Father has put everything into the hands of
the Son, still the Son, in order to behave in accordance with His
condition as man, considers it appropriate to implore the Father for
our sake, for He is our Advocate [...]. A Master of obedience, by His
example He instructs us concerning the precepts of virtue: `We have an
advocate with the Father' (1 John 2:1)" ("Expositio Evangelii sec.
Lucam, in loc.").

14-16. Jesus chose for Apostles very ordinary people, most of them poor
and uneducated; apparently only Matthew and the brothers James and John
had social positions of any consequence. But all of them gave up
whatever they had, little or much as it was, and all of them, bar
Judas, put their faith in the Lord, overcame their shortcomings and
eventually proved faithful to grace and became saints, veritable
pillars of the Church. We should not feel uneasy when we realize that
we too are low in human qualities; what matters is being faithful to
the grace God gives us.

19. God became man to save us. The divine person of the Word acts
through the human nature which He took on. The cures and casting out
of devils which He performed during His life on earth are also proof
that Christ actually brings redemption and not just hope of
redemption. The crowds of people from Judea and other parts of Israel
who flock to Him, seeking even to touch Him, anticipate, in a way,
Christians' devotion to the holy Humanity of Christ.