The Seven Holy Youths of Ephesus; Holy Venerable-Martyr Eudocia (98-117)
Dormition Fast.
1 Corinthians 14:6-19; Matthew 20:17-28
Read 1 Corinthians 14:6-19
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
When each of us were baptised, we were incorporated into the one Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We become part of a living Body with Christ as its head. Everything we say and do affects this Body. When I sin, the Body is affected. When I repent and ask for forgiveness from our Lord, not only am I healed but the entire body is affected by that healing. As a member of the Body of Christ, we ought to seek first to love because God first loved us!
In yesterday’s selection from Paul’s letter, he wrote to the Christians in Corinth that they should strive first and foremost for love. We should all seek the spiritual gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit, but the first ought to be love. Why did Paul stress this so much? Well, the Corinthians enjoyed the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of tongues (today’s selection from the same letter). Seeking gifts in order to be holy is not a bad thing, but the better way to think first to love others, to build up each other, even to use the gifts of tongues to build each other up. One could say that there developed in the Corinthian community a tendency to individualism and Paul exhorted them to again, put Christ first, other second, and the “I” third.
Today, we live in a hyper-individualised society. Perhaps we seek the things of God and of the Church for me first and then perhaps others. Paul’s words are a challenge for us some 2000 years later. I may have been granted many gifts by the Lord but if I do not do it (live it) with love, seeking the greatest good for the other, I am nothing more than a gong in the wind. Today, ask the Lord to free you from any claim that our hyper-individualised culture has on you, and let the Lord act on you, and lead you to love as He loves… and know… the Body will be affected!