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Editorial:
Thinking about the common good? From
the director: Untold stories Faith
and Politics After Christendom Comment:
Doing the Right Thing Give
Generously and Change the World? Economics
and the Common Good Interview
with Jim Wells (MLA): Polishing our Cars Review:
No Longer Strangers Division
and Diversity: Churches in a plural society Buying
in - Opting out Interview
with Fr Mariusz Dabrowski: Meet the neighbours Questions
& Answers: Reader survey responses Review:
Mark: Gospel of Action Bible
Study: The Common Good Difficult
Conversations: Let's talk about tax... |
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| The current ideology in our society focuses on vindicating the rights of each person. Christians can applaud much of this for we believe that we are both uniquely created in God’s image and likeness, and will be called to account personally for our own deeds at the Last Judgement (2 Cor. 5:10). | |||
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BUT THE WORDS and deeds of Jesus suggest that, while we have individual responsibility before God, our spirituality, our discipleship, can never sit easily with the individualist temptations of our age. 1. “If one part of the body hurts, all parts are hurt with it. If one part is given special honour, all parts enjoy it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26 In this letter, Paul was writing a response to reports from a very fragmented community of believers in Corinth. Some members were for Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or Christ (1 Cor. 1:12). It seems clear that there were those who boasted of their pedigree, achievements, wisdom or spiritual progress. We know that such an experience of fragmentation and spiritual ego-trips was not limited to first century Corinth! In response, Paul said that he could boast of nothing but the cross – for Jesus alone is “our wisdom, our virtue, our holiness and our freedom” (1 Cor. 1:30). All are parts of one Body, with different talents and tasks, all given by the one Spirit (Eph. 4:2-6; 11-13). But, while we may have accepted that in theory, we all know that it often does not filter down to our actions and our reactions! The longest twelve inches (or 30 centimetres!) is from the head to the heart. Being re-made in Christ requires a lifetime of repentance.
2. “I shall never eat meat again in case I am the cause of another’s downfall.” 1 Corinthians 8:13 One of the problems posed to Paul by the Corinthian Christians was whether they should eat meat sold in butchers’ shops. Much of the meat there would have come from temples where animals had been offered to pagan idols. Paul acknowledged that these other “gods” were non-entities. Nevertheless, some of the Christian community feared that they would be contaminated by eating of any such meat. Here, Paul was prepared to go to all lengths in order not to scandalise a weaker member of the community. For this reason, he would not eat meat again. For him, this was an exercise, not of being subject to another’s weakness, but of freedom. Our claim to freedom should never be used in a way that may become a downfall for the weak (1 Cor. 8:9).
3. “As often as you did this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40 Jesus keeps moving the gaze of his listeners beyond the comfortable boundaries. He mixed with tax collectors and sinners, women and children, Romans and other Gentiles, lepers and other outcasts from “proper” society. Love was not to be limited to the “in” group. Everyone had a right to know that they were loved by God and that forgiveness was available. And they need to experience that in their lives, not just know it in their heads. The Christian message is spread, not just about talking to others about Christ, but often by a silent loving service that bears witness to the all-embracing love of God who so loved the world that he sent his only Son, not to condemn the world but so that through him the world might be saved (Jn. 3:16-17). That has possible implications for how Christians are involved in civil society.
THE MOST REVEREND DONAL McKEOWN is Auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Down and Connor. |
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