A Reminder

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred brothers and sisters at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the Apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.

If there is one thing in this modern world that we can have no excuse for it is forgetting an appointment. In the era of carbon paper, pencil and paper you might have an excuse but today in this age of the smartphone, as long as you enter an appointment into the device, it will remind you that you have to be somewhere to see someone and it will do it over and over again until you dismiss it.  

We all can use a reminder now and then.  And today, Paul is giving such a reminder to the Corinthians.  Why did the Corinthians need a reminder of basic Christian doctrine such as we see in our reading today?  

Corinth was a boom town.  It had temples to every god and goddess imaginable.  It was a town where sailors took their ease in between voyages and it was known to be a place where every bodily pleasure could be satiated within its walls.  This rowdy spirit was affecting even the Christians that called the place home. For example, in the Christian community, there was a man that was living with his father's wife, in other words, his stepmother.  

So, what Paul is doing is reminding the folks in Corinth about why they should be above living as a pagan does. He points out that Jesus died for our sins and then rose from the dead.  Dying for our sins was a great thing, but if Jesus did not rise from the dead, well, He would have been quickly forgotten about.  Paul tells them to hold fast to what they have been taught and to return to life as it should be lived, free from all of the entanglements of the pagans. It is the death and rising of Jesus that is the source of our hope.

Today we can use a reminder such as this.  We live in a world where life is becoming cheap.  People are dancing away from the Church and accepting the emptiness of all that this world can offer them. We should not settle for what will rust and decay.  Only the best will do for the children of the King and the best things are those that will never rust or decay.  Claim yours today and redouble your efforts to find joy in the journey. 

Remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory - they need your help.