For September 12
Saturday of the Twenty-third Week of Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading Paul raises the issue of insidious idolatry. In Corinth there were pagan temples where meat was offered to idols, services that Christians presumably would not attend. Afterwards there were banquets in these same temples where the meat offered previously to the idols, to the pagan gods, was served, and since Christians knew that idols and pagan gods were non-existent, some apparently would participate, giving the wrong impression to others. This somewhat strange and historically conditioned practice leads Paul to one of his most profound theological insights.

Paul’s big stress is therefore on the Eucharistic meal or banquet where when the cup is blessed and the bread broken, it is participation in the Body and Blood of Christ. Keep in mind that the breaking of the bread was the earliest name for the Sunday Eucharist. His conclusion is that we the many who receive the bread are the Body of Christ. We are in ourselves the one Body of Christ; his profound belief is that the church is the Body of Christ. Thus, as one author puts it, participation in Jesus and his sacramental body becomes identification with incorporation into the church as the Body of Christ. Thinking of the Sunday Eucharist as having a horizontal as well as a vertical dimension would have particularly challenged the Corinthians who displayed much divisiveness, even when they gathered to worship.

Here is how Saint Augustine expresses this belief:

If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond “Amen” (“yes, it is true!”) and by responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words, “the Body of Christ” and respond “Amen.” Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true.

Today’s somewhat anti-climactic gospel begins with a fairly obvious parable about good trees not producing rotten fruit, rotten ones not good fruit. The conclusion is even more straightforward. A good person does good from the goodness stored in their heart, an evil person evil from the evil stored in theirs. Applying this to what the mouth speaks suggests a link to the more complex second parable about those who restrict themselves to saying “Lord. Lord,” without heeding Jesus’ commands.

The contrast is between a house built with its foundation on rock and one built on sand without a foundation, reminding me of the nourishing roots the good tree in the first parable would require. The parallel is someone who comes to Jesus, listens to his words, and acts on them as opposed to someone who listens to Jesus’ words but does not so act.

When the flood comes, probably symbolizing opposition to, or just the ignoring of, followers of Jesus then and now, the first house remains unshaken while the second is strikingly described as having collapsed and been destroyed. One author suggests the parable is about the life of integrity and the total response to the call of Jesus required of would-be disciples.
—Edward O’Donnell SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Coferece of Catholic Bishops’ website.