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Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 5:1–8
Every baptized person has died to sin and begun a new life for God.
But this journey is not simple.
Sin does not disappear in one day.
Our old habits, our wounds, our pride, our desires, still fight within us.
That is why Christian life is also a battle.
A battle for truth.
A battle for holiness.
A battle for the life we received in Christ.
Today Saint Paul faces a serious problem in the Church of Corinth.
A man is living with his father’s wife.
Even the pagans would find this shameful.
But the community does not react.
Perhaps the man is influential.
Perhaps he has friends.
Perhaps people are afraid to speak.
Perhaps they want peace at any price.
But Paul sees clearly.
This is not peace.
This is corruption.
If sin is accepted inside the community, the community slowly becomes like the world.
Instead of being light, it becomes darkness.
Instead of witnessing to Christ, it hides Christ.
That is why Paul speaks strongly.
The man must be excluded from the community.
This sounds harsh to us.
But Paul’s aim is not revenge.
His aim is repentance.
Sometimes a person must see that his choices are not only private.
They wound the whole body.
Sin is never only personal.
It spreads.
Paul uses the image of yeast.
A little yeast can affect the whole dough.
In the same way, one accepted sinful way of life can weaken the whole community.
Before Passover, the old yeast had to be removed.
Paul says:
Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, we must celebrate the feast not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
This is the heart of today’s reading.
Christ died for our sins.
He broke the power of sin.
He gave us a new life.
So we cannot make peace with the old yeast.
We cannot pretend that sin does not matter.
We cannot say:
This is my life.
It affects no one.
It always affects someone.
It affects the Church.
It affects the witness of the Gospel.
It affects the weak.
It affects the young.
It affects those who are searching for God.
Today we can ask ourselves:
What old yeast still remains in me?
What sin do I excuse?
What truth do I avoid?
Where do I need repentance?
May the Lord give us the grace to recognize our sins,
to confess them,
to turn away from them,
and to live with sincerity and truth,
for God and for His glory.
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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© 2025 Krakus.
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