Homily

There is trouble in the parish of Corinth, as we heard St. Paul writing about it today. Apparently some of the parishioners, who had education and money, thought that they were superior to the rest of the parish, and perhaps even more important than their pastor, St. Apollos, or their evangelist, St. Paul. In Chapter 4, V. 8, one line before today's epistle begins, St. Paul writes: "Already you are satisfied. Already you are enriched. Independently of us you have acted as kings. And would that you were kings so that we might reign with you!" St. Paul didn’t mind using sarcasm to make a point.

To contrast with that image, Paul talks about himself and the other apostles: "For as I see it, God has exhibited us apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and human beings alike." Paul is using the image of the military victory parade here, where the conquered enemy soldiers were led through the streets in chains, at the end of the victory parade, as people jeered and insulted them. Many of them might soon be put to death in the local arena as another part of the public spectacle.

Paul continues to use sarcasm to try and shame these wealthy and self-important parishioners back into a proper Christian mode of behavior. "We are fools on Christ's account but you are wise." Paul says he only boasts in Christ, not in himself, and the wisdom of God is Christ Crucified, which to those without faith is foolishness. Most of the Corinthian Christians were poor, uneducated and probably many were slaves. How ironic that those with money and education in the parish—the most socially privileged, are now placing themselves in danger of being lost through their sinful pride.

Paul continues: "We are weak, but you are strong, you are held in honor, but we are without honor." Obviously, when Paul continues on speaking about going hungry, thirsty, naked, beaten and homeless, he's reminding the parishioners of Corinth that his strength in his work for the church is quite the opposite of being a weak man, and if they want to talk about their own great deeds, they should only do so after thinking about the hardships that Paul endures for the sake of the Gospel.

But I want to stop on this part: "You are held in honor, but we are without honor." In the ancient Greek-Roman world honor was one of the greatest qualities a person could have. Honor meant that you were held in high regard, or great respect. It could also refer to glory or fame for those who achieved it in athletic contests, or military victory, or great accomplishments in the arts or politics. But most often it was about good reputation, that you were a person who always held to what was morally correct.

You don't hear much talk about honor today, do you? In the culture St. Paul lived in, to lose your honor was one of the worst things that could happen to a person, because it was the result of acting in a way that brought shame and disrespect upon yourself. If you lost your honor you might as well move to another town because your name would be held in disrepute, your word would mean nothing and you would constantly be looked upon as person of low moral character.

Even speaking just of Western civilizations, there has been a constant tradition of the importance of honor throughout the last 2,000 years. Many of the great epic stories of our history and culture contain the descriptions of the honor that great men and women lived for and often sacrificed to hold onto. Although it is totally contrary to Christian faith, there were times and places where men even challenged one another to duels because they felt their honor had been damaged by another party. Certainly dueling was wrong, but it revealed the value people placed on their good name and reputation.

Who even uses the word "honor" today? Who talks about whether or not a person is honorable? Who is afraid of losing their honor? I think there are two reasons for this. First, the modern idea that you shouldn't care what anyone else thinks about you. You should just live and act the way you want to live and act. In this case, honor would be unimportant to you since it involves the high regard or respect of other people. If you don't care what others think, honor is not important.

The second reason people don't care so much about honor today is because so many people cannot agree on what is honorable behavior. If we cannot agree, in so many areas, about what is right and what is wrong, then it is difficult to talk about people acting honorably. Even though we don’t find many people in public life trying to live up to a code of honor, we do find a good number of people who try to exercise power by shaming others. While they themselves show no particular understanding of honorable living, they do know how to try and use shame to beat down other people who do not agree with their agendas about sexual identity, racial relations and socialist politics. They may not try to live as honorable people themselves, but they do know how to use shame as a weapon against those who do not accept their ideas or values.

St. Paul thinks honor is very important, but it is not the kind of honor that the well-to-do, educated parishioners in Corinth were looking for. Instead, it is the honor that is found in living a life in Christ. Christ alone is the man of true and perfect honor, and all those who live in Him, all those who walk in His path, all those who live by His law, all those who seek to love as He loves, these are the people of honor, whether rich or poor, free or slave, male or female, young or old, all those who seek to live in Christ share in His honor even if, to the world, they may seem to, as Paul says, to be "the scum of all," they are in fact most esteemed in the Kingdom of God. Just as the cross is foolishness and the resurrection an absurd notion to some people, those who live in the honor of Christ will not always be welcomed or praised. In fact, they may be condemned, even to put to death as St. Paul was. They may end up being a public spectacle, like those who were forced to march in chains at the end of some kind of victory parade, to the jeers, the insults and the trash thrown by the crowds who line the streets. But our dignity, our honor in Christ stands both in life and in death, for there is no place, no time, no circumstance that can cut us off from Him, unless we ourselves choose to do so. And so we pray in the Litany asking for a “Christian, painless, unashamed, peaceful end of our life, “not according to the opinion of the world but rather in the eyes of Christ, the Just Judge.

Also during the Liturgy when we pray, "for to You is due all glory, honor and worship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit," let us remember that the greatest honor we can ever bear in this life, or in the life to come is the unsurpassable honor that belongs to those who live as the children of God. Though the world may try to shame us, we cannot turn away from the baptismal honor that has been so mercifully given to us. Let our only boast in this life be that we belong to God and that we live in the life of Christ our God.