1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Easter – Year B

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

How do we get beyond what has been handed on to us? Here the business of tradition keeps alive the sacrificial motif as basic to faith. What else have we come to "believe" because it has simply been around and found ourselves in its midst?

Conversion mania of being more faithful than the faithful is a phenomenon that deepens hearsay into eye-witness reports. You can almost bet that the ever more righteous who show it by being even more righteous than the current most righteous, will devolve the gift of life into reward for themselves. No matter how slyly Paul protests that it is just the grace of god that has enlightened him, his passing on what he had been taught as a good sacrificial Pharisee is not helpful or excusable. In terms of counter-espionage, Paul might be considered a double-agent or mole as well as by his current sobriquet of saint.

Easter pushes us beyond what has been handed on to us. There is a new reality afoot. Follow the clues of Jesus' faithfulness and you will not find a sacrificial utilitarianism, but an obliviousness to sacrifice through radical hospitality with those traditionally left out.