“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
 1 Corinthians 6:13 (nrsv)

Paul’s text in 1 Corinthians 6.12-20 is challenging on two levels. The easier to deal with is the superficial contradiction just quoted. He implies an irrelevancy and triviality of bodily needs and activities but in the same breath affirms the body’s importance to the Christian life. Does he want to eat the cake and have it: a world both renouncing and affirming Christianity? An easy resolution is that in his view the body is no mere constellation of physical processes and structures, but is one with definite meaning and purpose, revealed through Jesus’ resurrection (6.14). We are called to go beyond our animal instincts or natural responses and coordinate them to conform to the shape and purpose revealed in Jesus’ risen life. Sexual activity is no mere fleshly copulation but also inter-permeation of two persons (6.16). Our bodies (and bodily activities) are holy in that they are dedicated to God, a sacrosanct “temple of the Holy Spirit” (6.19). If we are allowed to anticipate, the church is a body (12.12). So we see that body and its activities are value laden, full of spiritual and social significance.

This strikes me as a concept that goes against the grain of our modern understanding of the body. However, I find the text challenging in a more basic manner. Finding food, as a metaphor for making a living, is a most basic biological activity and a key goal for the fittest to achieve in order to survive and pass their genes along. Even our sociability (of which the organized economy is a manifestation) is a trait that enables us to make a living and survive. Nonetheless, Paul’s logic suggests that even in the midst of economic recession, where the fact or fear of loss of job reigns, where a keen sense of competition, especially foreign ones, dominates, we are called not to be driven solely by even the basic biological necessity of making a living. This is not to ignore the fear (or fact) of unemployment, and I struggle to square the text’s implication with the economic reality, but it remains a fact that here is a challenge our faith calls us to meet.

Dear Lord, we thank you for calling us to be like your Son. We pray that we work not just for our benefit but for your glory. We pray that you give us strength to face the fear and fact of loss of work. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Contributed by Hon-Wai
Monday January 16, 2012
Liturgical Year B: Week 8
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading:
Second Sunday after Epiphany