First Vegas
Because St Paul wrote several letters to the nascent Jesus Movement in Corinth, in Greece, Catholics can get a clear view of a Christian community in its early days. However, the Jesus Movement at Corinth was an unusual group of people. Therefore, while we can learn a great deal about them, it is important to realize that this group was different, very different.
Somebody described the port city of Corinth as comparable to Las Vegas, a free-wheeling place with a variety of folks constituting the population. Like most Christian communities, the Jesus Movement in Corinth probably were constituted by “house churches”, small communities of 30 or so, who would meet weekly on Saturday evenings in the house of a Christian with a room large enough to accommodate 30 people. The term that is used in contemporary Catholicism would be “intentional communities.” Today’s concept of “church buildings” was, for Corinthian Christians, not yet on the horizon.
Although St Paul did not have the language of Catholic quantum theology, he did proclaim (without using the term) the “Christ quantum”, viz., the pervasive impact of Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God and the pattern of all creation. He believed (as we do) that the impact of Jesus affects His followers and enables to feel His Presence in our midst. The crucified and Risen Lord was alive and well in the Jesus Movement throughout the world. Just give the Spirit time and God’s Plan for the world would unfold.
St Paul’s strategy was to establish Christian communities in crucial cities in the Mediterrean basin as communal audio-visuals in Christ Jesus. His strategy was that local leaders would emerge when Paul moved on. These local leaders would guide and direct the communities.
(Interestingly, in many places, today, parishes need to restore St Paul’s practice after a fashion. In scores, maybe hundreds, of cases even in the USA, parishes do not have a resident pastor. Rather, lay people minister to the parish community. For liturgical celebrations, priests would come, when available, to celebrate sacraments. Otherwise, on Sundays when a priest was unavailable, a liturgy has been designed by the Vatican, entitled Sunday Worship in the Absence of a Priest. It involved the morning (or evening) prayer of the Church (Lauds (or Vespers)) ff. by Liturgy of the Word, according to the Sunday readings throughout the world, ff by prayers of intercession, a prayer of TXG and a communion rite, all presided over by a Eucharistic Minister.)
The group shared an alternative explanation, worldview, and consciousness. They mutually supported one another in the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. (In today’s world, something comparable would be Recovery Movements, such as Alcoholics, Overeaters’, Gamblers’, where people gather in small groups.) Committed to Christ Jesus, in the words of Pope Benedict, they not only believed in Jesus, they believed Jesus.
However, problems arose. The Jesus Movement at Corinth was to live the Alternate Worldview in their dealings with others, but particularly among themselves. With an egalitarian view of the kinship group, these folks addressed one another as brothers and sisters (cf the reference to Sosthenes in today’s reading). They did not always, however, practice what they preached. For example, class consciousness emerged. More affluent Christians associated with one another and avoided poorer, less “in” Christian brothers and sisters. In addition, some preferred St Peter’s style more; others favored Apollos (Paul’s successor) after Paul left. Others felt that salvation meant “anything goes”.
Paul’s challenge in his letters was to restore the original vision of a mission of inclusive election in Christ, viz., Christ had plans to use this community to convert the world. “Sanctified” in the greeting today is not meant to be self-congratulatory; rather, “sanctified” means that God has set apart Christians to let all people know that God is for everybody, not just an “in-group”. The Jesus Movement were to allow Christ Jesus to use them to lead lives of holiness. (INTEGRITY is what holiness means here.) Some of their antics stymied the plan, but did not defeat it. Then, as now, some things remain the same. St Paul truly believed that these small groups in key places in the world could transform the world into the world that God wanted in Christ Jesus. (True, his time frame was off, but his strategy continues slowly, slowly to permeate the world.) Paul believed that if Christians were to live as Jesus wants us all to live, then, others would join up. Some of our antics, then and now, delay God’s Plan, not defeat it. Things remain the same. Still, wherever we gather in Christ Jesus, we try, with God’s Help” to hasten the Day when Christ’s New Age, World Order will come. You can recall that the Kingdom is here (even now), but not yet, when we try to take Jesus seriously in their lives and act accordingly. 011611AD jfq
