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From: 1 Corinthians 4:6-15

Servants of Christ (Continuation)

[6] I have applied all this to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brethren, that you
may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed
up in favor of one against another. [7] For who sees anything different in you?
What have you that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast
as if it were not a gift?

Trials of Apostles

[8] Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have
become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with
you! [9] For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sen-
tenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels
and to men. [10] We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We
are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. [11]
To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and home-
less, [12] and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless;
when persecuted, we endure; [13] when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have
become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things.

Admonishment

[14] I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my be-
loved children. [15] For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not
have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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Commentary:

6. “Not to go beyond what is written”: this is open to various interpretations. It
may be a proverb with which the Corinthians were familiar, meaning that one
should stay on safe ground (in this cases Paul’s guidelines for the infant Church
at Corinth). “What is written” could also refer to all scripture or just to the quota-
tions which Paul has used (cf. 1:19, 31; 3:19). In any event he makes it clear to
the Corinthians that it is they themselves who, due to their immaturity and pride,
have caused the dissensions in their community through exalting one preacher
at the expense of others. Paul and Apollos have behaved quite properly and
therefore cannot be held responsible for these divisions.

7. The Apostle comes back again to insist on what he said earlier (cf. 1:26-31):
they have no cause to boast about the calling they have received. God called
them without any merit on their part. “To be humble is to walk in the truth, for it
is absolutely true to say that we have no good thing in ourselves, but only mise-
ry and nothingness; and anyone who fails to understand this is walking in false-
hood” (St Teresa of Avila, “Interior Castle”, VI, chap. 10). Therefore, the attitude
of a humble soul, reflecting on the graces he or she has received, should be one
of gratitude to God, the giver. Here is what St John of Avila has to say about this
verse: “If you have the grace of God and want to please him and do excellent
things, do not glory in yourself, but rather in him who made it possible — God.
And if you boast of having used your free will well, or freely consented to God’s
inspirations, do not boast even on that account; boast rather of God who made
you consent, inspiring you and gently influencing you-and who in fact gave you
that free will whereby you were able to give your free consent. And if you are in-
clined to boast about the fact that you could have resisted God’s inspiration and
good influence and yet did not resist it, you should not boast about that either,
for that is a matter not of doing something but of not doing something; and even
that you owe to God, because he who helped you to consent in doing good also
helped you not to reject that help. Any good use you make of your free will, in
things to do with your salvation, is a gift from God [...]. So, always boast only in
God, from whom all the good you have comes; and remember that without him
the only harvest you reap is nothing, and vanity and evil” (”Audi, Filia”, chap. 66).

8. Verse 8 sums up a series of ironic remarks about the conceitedness of these
Corinthians whom St Paul is taking to task. St Thomas Aquinas comments on
this passage as follows: “The Apostle here considers four types of pride: the first,
when one thinks that what one has does not come from God [...]; the second,
which is similar, when one thinks that one has done everything on one’s own me-
rit; the third, when one boasts of having something which one does not in fact
have [...]; the fourth, when one despises others and is concerned only about one-
self” (”Commentary on 1 Cor, ad loc.”).

The Apostle dramatically describes the disabilities which followers of Christ are
happy to bear, like people sentenced to death in the arena they are a spectacle
for everyone to watch. In other letters he again tells of the suffering an apostle
must expect (cf. 2 Cor 6:3-10; 11:23-33; 2 Tim 3:11).

The last words in the passage — “the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all
things” — may refer to a barbaric custom that obtained in some Greek cities: in
the face of some public calamity, a citizen, in exchange for being treated royal
for a period, agreed to be sacrificed to the gods; on the day of his sacrifice the
people had the right to heap every kind of insult and filth upon him; he was “the
offscouring of everyone”. This sacrifice was offered to free the city of evil spells.
Even if they do refer to this custom, these words have also a much deeper mea-
ning: Christ by dying on the cross has redeemed the world; the apostle must
follow in the footsteps of his Master, knowing that suffering completes “what is
lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col
1:24).

Therefore, there is no trace of protest in what St Paul is saying here: he is poin-
ting to the value of suffering, which the cross of Christ, helps us to recognize. “I
will tell you which are man’s treasures on earth,” St. Escriva writes, “so that you
won’t let them go to waste: hunger, thirst, heat cold, pain, dishonor, poverty, lone-
liness, betrayal, slander, prison...” (”The Way”, 194).

14-16. St Paul brings up the subject of the spiritual paternity of the Corinthians,
because it was he who begot them in the faith. In view of this fact, his reproaches
take on a special seriousness; his purpose is not to make them feel ashamed but
to encourage them to acquire the virtues they need and to have them build up the
Church, which has been established as “a communion of life, love and truth”
(Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 9).

“Be imitators of me”: whenever the Apostle puts himself forward as a model for
the faithful (cf. 1 Cor 11:1; 2 Thess 3:7; Phil 3:17; Gal 4:12) he refers to the suffe-
rings which his apostolate has brought upon him. All Christians should act in like
manner (1 Thess 1:6-7; 2:14). If they do, they will be a support for one another,
they will come to have the same sentiments as Christ Jesus, (Phil 2:5), and will
be keeping out his commandment that each carry his own cross (Mt. 16:24).

The saints understood all this and taught others to face up to suffering, even se-
vere suffering. “We always find that those who walked closest to Christ our Lord
were those who had to bear the greatest trials. Consider the trials suffered by his
glorious Mother and by the glorious Apostles. How do you suppose St Paul could
endure such terrible trials? [...]. You know very well that, so far as we can learn,
he took not a day’s rest, nor can he have rested by night, since it was then that
he had to earn his living” (St Teresa, “Interior Castle”, VII, chap. 4,5).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 6:1-5

The Law of the Sabbath

[1] On a Sabbath, while He (Jesus) was going through the grainfields, His dis-
ciples plucked and ate some ears of grain, rubbing them in their hands. [2] But
some of the Pharisees said, “Why are You doing what is not lawful to do on the
Sabbath?” [3] And Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he
was hungry, he and those who were with him: [4] how he entered the house of
God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any
but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” [5] And he said to
them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

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Commentary:

1-5. Accused by the Pharisees of breaking the Sabbath, Jesus explains the
correct way of understanding the Sabbath rest, using an example from the Old
Testament. And, by stating that He is “Lord of the Sabbath” He is openly revea-
ling that He is God Himself, for it was God who gave this precept to the people
of Israel. For more on this, see the notes on Matthew 12:2 and 12:3-8.

[The notes on Matthew 12:2 and 12:3-8 states:

2. “The Sabbath”: this was the day the Jews set aside for worshipping God. God
Himself, the originator of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:3), ordered the Jewish people
to avoid certain kinds of work on this day (Exodus 20:8-11; 21:13; Deuteronomy
5:14) to leave them free to give more time to God. As time went by, the rabbis
complicated this divine precept: by Jesus’ time they had extended to 39 the list
of kinds of forbidden work.

The Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking the Sabbath. In the casuistry
of the scribes and the Pharisees, plucking ears of corn was the same as harves-
ting, and crushing them was the same as milling-types of agricultural work forbid-
den on the Sabbath.

3-8. Jesus rebuts the Pharisees’ accusation by four arguments-the example of
David, that of the priests, a correct understanding of the mercy of God and Jesus’
own authority over the Sabbath.

The first example which was quite familiar to the people, who were used to lis-
tening to the Bible being read, comes from 1 Samuel 21:2-7: David, in flight from
the jealousy of King Saul, asks the priest of the shrine of Nob for food for his men;
the priest gave them the only bread he had, the holy bread of the Presence; this
was the twelve loaves which were placed each week on the golden altar of the
sanctuary as a perpetual offering from the twelve tribes of Israel (Leviticus 24:5-9).
The second example refers to the priestly ministry to perform the liturgy, priests
had to do a number of things on the Sabbath but did not thereby break the law
of Sabbath rest (cf. Numbers 28:9).]

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.