2^ND CORINTHIANS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 10^th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “2^nd Corinthians.”

At this time of the Church Year, the 10^th and 11^th weeks in Ordinary Time,  the Church gives us 2 weeks - 12 readings - from 2^nd Corinthians - every other year.

TODAY’S COMMENTS

Let me give some a broad view of the Letter today.  I like to do that for myself - when we start a new book of the Bible on weekdays. Hope it’s helpful for you. We’re also  beginning the Gospel of Matthew today - starting with the Sermon on the Mount - but I’ll save that for another day - especially since I’ve done that several times.

The first observation would be that  2^nd Corinthians is a combination of letters from Paul. Not everyone holds that. I use the Jerome Biblical Commentary for my starting research. In that Commentary Jerome Murphy O’Connor wrote the piece on Second Corinthians. He says that the best theory as of now is that 2^nd Corinthians is a combination of 5 Letters of Paul. The letter has too many different tones for it to be one letter.  Things just don’t fit, for it to be one letter.  In most ways, this is should not be a big impact reality.

Next  it’s dated from around 55. I always like to know the dates of documents. Remember the gospels are from 60 to 100 - more or less.

The next issue would be to figure out what’s going on in the church at Corinth.  If you’re here for weekday masses, then listen to the 1^st reading with that question in mind.

There seems to be some infighting going on in that community.

One fight seems to be a fight between two groups - those who stress the Law and those who stress the Spirit.  We see that going on at various times in the New Testament. It seems there are those who are the Jewish Christians. That’s their background. And there are the Greek Christians who have a different stress. Paul, from Romans and other Letters tell us he is more on the Spirit   side of fight.

Next - it would be a nice exercise to compare the Paul we hear in 1^st Corinthians and the Paul we hear in 2^nd Corinthians. At times he is  hot, angry, and more emotional, in 2^nd Corinthians. In 1^st Corinthians he is more cool, calm and logical. The message I would take from that is that some people we live with, work with, interact with can be more moody than others.  I have lived with priests whom the rest of us have to step back to see where they are at the moment.

6 TEXTS IN 2^ND CORINTHIANS THAT STAND OUT

I ran through 2^nd Corinthians to see what texts might stand out.  Here are a few for now.

We’re clay pots - but we hold a treasure within. Hopefully we have worked with clay at times.  So we know the difference between a bowl and what goes in a bowl. We know the difference between a bottle of expensive perfume and a bottle of cheap after shave lotion. The contents is what counts - unless we are saving very valuable vases and pots.

We’re tents - that will get folded up - while a house is being built for us in heaven.  Hopefully, we have all camped - and saw the difference between living in a tent compared to living in a house.   We were watching a TV program last night about these vast tent cities in Turkey for refugees out of Syria.

Next, Paul has no love - which in First Corinthians - he says is patient. Well in 2^nd Corinthians he tells us that there are phonies in our midst - counterfeits - who are trying to impress people, but they are fake apostles. Spot them and avoid them.

Churches have money collections. So what else is new.

Paul had a great vision and revelation - right up to the 3^rd heavens in his life. Hopefully, we’ve all had God-like experiences.

And lastly Paul tells us that he had a thorn in the flesh. Don’t we all?