Overview:

Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

A Reflection for Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching;
empty, too, your faith….
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor 15:14, 20)

Find today’s readings here.

Recently, a friend came and visited me for the first time since I got an apartment in Chicago. My new place is north of downtown, close to Wrigley Field, and her visit offered me the opportunity to be a tourist again, both in that neighborhood and around town. We tried new coffee shops and great restaurants in my area, and we even trekked down to the “Magnificent Mile” where we shopped a little bit along the Chicago River. 

It was a real joy to see the city through her eyes. After being here for a while and knowing the city decently well, it was nice to break out of my routine and my comfort zone, being reinvigorated and renewed in my love for this great place. 

I think our first reading today might be attempting to do the same in our spiritual lives. 

If the reading from St. Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians sounds a bit odd or out of place to you, you are not wrong! In the thick of Ordinary Time, the church offers us a reading that is explicitly paschal in nature. In this text, Paul seeks to address as pointedly as possible those who would deny the resurrection of the dead. If this resurrection thing isn’t real, he seems to say to the church at Corinth (and to us), then not only are we preaching in vain, but any faith you have in Christ is in vain.

But as he knows—and as we know—that’s not where this story ends. After his soliloquy-of-sorts detailing what it would truly mean if the resurrection didn’t happen, Paul, in a personal testimony, proclaims, “but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (cf. 1 Cor 15:20). 

Paul today, along with Mary, Joanna, Susanna and all the women included in our Gospel who ministered to and for Jesus in the early church, call us by their preaching to shake off the dust of the mundane and awaken within, even at the end of our summer rest, the joy and excitement of the resurrection. This faith we hold—or maybe struggle to hold—day in and day out must be rooted in the resurrection and the promises it holds. It is to this great mystery that we commit ourselves every time we celebrate the Eucharist around the Table of the Lord and receive Christ’s body and blood. 

As summer ends and new seasons of life begin, maybe your faith right now is a tad monotonous, or your life, like mine, simply seems to be just “going through the motions.” Paul invites us today to dig deeper and open our eyes anew, knowing the faith we hold is not in vain. Because our Redeemer lives. Christ has been raised from the dead. And that is indeed some good, joyful news.

John Consolie is the assistant director of Outreach.