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Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 8:1b–7, 11–13
Imagine you are living in a Buddhist country.
People bring large amounts of food to the temples. The temples cannot use all of it. You run a Christian orphanage, and you do not have enough food for the children. The monks offer to give you some of the food they received.
Would you accept it?
For some Christians, the answer would be simple:
Food is food. Children are hungry. Take it and give thanks to God.
For others, the question would be painful:
Was this food first offered in a non-Christian religious setting? Would accepting it confuse the children? Would it look like sharing in another religion’s worship?
This is close to the problem Saint Paul addresses in today’s reading.
The Christians in Corinth lived in a pagan city. Meat was often connected with sacrifices offered in pagan temples. Some of that meat was eaten at banquets. Some was sold in the market. Some was used in private meals.
So the question came to Paul:
Can a Christian eat food that has been offered to idols?
In principle, Paul agrees with those who say yes.
An idol is nothing.
There is only one God.
Food does not bring us closer to God, and food does not separate us from God.
But Paul does not stop there.
Because the Christian life is not lived only by correct ideas.
It is lived with brothers and sisters.
Some Christians in Corinth knew that idols were nothing. But others, perhaps newly converted from paganism, still felt disturbed. For them, eating such food felt like returning to idolatry.
Paul does not mock them.
He does not say, “You are ignorant. Grow up.”
Instead, he turns to the stronger group and says:
“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
This is one of the most important sentences in the Christian life.
Knowledge is good.
Formation is good.
Theology is good.
But knowledge without love becomes pride.
It makes us look down on others.
It makes us impatient with those who are slower, weaker, wounded, or afraid.
Paul’s strongest argument is not about food.
It is about the person in front of us.
The “weak” brother or sister is someone “for whom Christ died.”
That changes everything.
I may have the right answer.
I may have the better argument.
I may even be free to do something.
But if my freedom wounds the conscience of another person, then love asks me to stop.
Paul says it very strongly:
“If food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat again.”
This is not weakness.
This is charity.
Christian freedom is not only about what I am allowed to do.
It is also about what my freedom does to another person.
Today, many communities are divided not only by serious sins, but also by people who are correct without love.
They know the rule.
They know the theology.
They know the argument.
But they do not see the person.
Paul brings us back to Christ.
Jesus did not use His freedom for Himself.
He gave Himself for us.
He did not crush the weak.
He carried them.
So today we can ask ourselves:
Does my knowledge build up others?
Do I use my freedom with love?
Is there someone near me whose conscience, faith, or weakness I need to treat more gently?
Knowledge can make us proud.
But love builds the Church.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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