Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as the second day of the Dormition Fast!

Today, for the first time on a Sunday, we heard the words of the Apostle Paul written to the Corinthian Christians. When this apostle wrote to the Romans, he had not yet been to Rome, and although he knew quite a few of the Roman Christians, he was not personally acquainted with that Church, and therefore his epistle to them was very general in content. You probably got a feeling for this the past several Sundays when we were listening to excerpts from that letter. With the Corinthians things are different. Paul was intimately familiar with this Church. He founded her, knew all its members well, spent a year and a half with her. His epistle to this Church is not at all general, but very personal. In it he deals with the real problems that came up once he had left this Church.

Today we heard about one of these problems and the holy apostle’s answer. The first thing that Paul does in this epistle is to focus his attention on that problem about which we heard last week, that is about unity in Christ. The majority of the members of the Corinthian Church were not Jews, but former pagans. Although they had complete faith in the crucified and risen Christ, it was hard from them to forget some of their old habits. The ancient Greeks were an inquisitive people who enjoyed participating in philosophical debates and separating into different philosophical schools of thought. This tendency to debate or quarrel followed them into their new Christian life. Of course they were not divided in what is most important, nor did they begin to form new communities, but among the one large and diverse Corinthian Church one would hear things such as these said: “Such a person baptized me, and he is better than the others, therefore I accept only him!” In answer, another would counter: “But all things concerned, that other person preaches more eloquently, more cleverly, and more clearly than anyone else. Therefore I count myself as his adherent!” and so on. Although such debates were shallow and, at the moment, were of no cause for concern for the unity of the Church, they were foreign to the spirit of Christianity and could in the future lead to more serious problems.

Paul, in a most beautiful, gentle, and fatherly manner addresses these problems. First, let’s note that he doesn’t demand anything from his spiritual children, but instead beseeches, that is asks them, to be united in Christ Jesus and to speak the same thing, i. e. to not quarrel. He doesn’t demand but asks, but at the same time brings up the name of Christ so as to awaken their conscience and to remind them that the one important thing in their church lives is the Lord Jesus Christ. The second thing that we should notice is that Paul does not name the actual people who began the quarrels, but instead uses the names of the great preachers and apostles: of course himself, Apollos, and Peter (Cephas), and in the end even adds Christ Himself. In such a way he hints the following: “If it is wrong to divide into parties that are headed by such great teachers, how can you, with a clean conscience, divide yourselves into groups headed, in comparison, by such insignificant men?” Paul continues that the main thing is not who baptized you or who is preaching, but in whose name you were baptized and what is being preached. Today’s excerpt ends with the words of the apostle that he was sent to preach the crucifixion of the Saviour, not to be distracted by various seemingly wise ideas and quarrels, because for us, the cross is the power of God, but for the unbelievers, this salvific death will not be made understandable even with the most beautiful or clever words. Therefore, we should talk about what is most important and not quarrel over petty things!

As was the case last week, today’s words are very important for us. Let there not be quarrels over petty things in our parish. Let’s not bring our old habits, which do not conform to our high calling, into our Christian lives. Let’s take the Apostle Paul as an example for ourselves. Let’s not demand anything from our neighbours, but instead, let us gently ask. Let’s not name or call out those that may be mistaken in petty things, but to try to find a different, more delicate way of showing them their mistakes and the way to correct them. Finally, let us not forget that our glory is the Lord’s Cross, that is, that God became a man, lived among us, accepted a humiliating death on the Cross, rose from the dead on the third day, all so that we could be saved! Let this be the central idea in our lives.

priest Alexis