Archbishop of Sydney

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
1 Cor 15:1-11

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
8 February 2004

St. Paul was not one of the twelve apostles chosen by Our Lord during his lifetime; nor was he the substitute elected by the other apostles to replace Judas Iscariot the traitor.  Paul was still a zealous Jew when that happened.

The New Testament recognizes Paul and Barnabas as apostles and Paul certainly believed that he had been directly appointed by the risen Christ to this office of Apostle.

Those who had lived with Our Lord and had been taught by him had an unequalled authority in identifying true teaching when they could claim that they had heard the Lord himself so teach.  That was the truth.  That settled the issue.

So too as the generations passed, those churches which had been founded by the apostles had a special position in identifying what were the true teachings of the Lord and the apostles.  Especially in the early church, it did not help much to claim that religiously you were up to date, that you were not old fashioned, that you were aware of the latest research.  Their first and instinctive enquiry was, “Did Jesus teach this?” or “Does this contradict something Jesus or the apostles taught?”  We might now ask whether such and such a teaching is contained in the apostolic tradition; or is it in the Catholic Catechism?

A local community which had recorded or had a living memory of how their founding apostle taught on such a matter was well on the way to over-ruling any Christian who taught the contrary.

Today we are so much influenced by continual advances in science, medicine, technology and many branches of physical knowledge that we do not usually give any special weight to a teaching because it is ancient.  Are not most of those teachings superseded, replaced or at least improved by more adequate information or theorising?

These instincts, this preference for the modern often does not work well in many of the arts and sciences which touch the human soul, the spiritual side of human nature.  Ancient-teachings generally contain much philosophical truth.  There are beautiful ancient poems and dramas.  It would be a bold person today who claimed we had philosophers to equal Plato and Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas; or composers to equal Bach, Mozart and Beethoven; or artists to equal Da Vinci and Michelangelo, or even the works of Caravaggio which are on display now in  our art gallery.

There is an even more important exception to this option for modernity and that is in religion.  In all the great religious traditions the teachings of the Founder have a special authority i.e. Buddha, Mahomet and especially Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we know as the Son of God.

On many occasions you have heard me say that immense consequences follow from admitting that Jesus is divine, as well as human.  His divinity means that it was possible for him to save or redeem us, which is much more than leaving us a brave example of confronting suffering.  It also means that Jesus’ teachings have a unique authority.  Therein are Our Maker’s instructions.

St. Paul understood all this.  He acknowledged that he had a double disadvantage in any argument about what was the true doctrine of the Founder.  He had been a fanatical opponent and persecutor of the Christians, had not known Our Lord in his lifetime and certainly had not been part of the inner circle of 12, the apostles.

In today’s letter to the people of Corinth, a bawdy rowdy cosmopolitan port with a thriving but fractious Christian community, Paul urges that they follow his teaching, because the gospel will save them.

To validate his demands he insists that he only teaches what he was taught i.e. that Christ died for our sins, rose again and was seen by different groups of people.

Paul acknowledged that he might be the least of the apostles.  What matters though is that he preaches what they preach i.e. the twelve who were with Christ.

This remains true today.  No pope, or bishop or priest, or school teacher, nobody at all has any right to change or reject church teaching unilaterally.  Our task is to teach what Christ and the Church teach.

We recognize that there are regularly new issues not touched upon in the New Testament e.g. artificial contraception, stem cell research and the Church authorities have to develop responses to the questions which arise.  But where we have New Testament teachings, sanctioned by the Church, in faith and morals, we are called to accept this, because these truths bring salvation.

Especially today some claim that the Church’s moral teaching is too demanding; e.g. on the need to forgive, on some matters of sexual behaviour, or on the protection of human life.  In reply we explain that we are compassionate to people, we understand human weakness, we do not run around condemning, but Christian norms and ideals must be explained clearly, virtues and vices cannot be redefined, and God’s forgiveness is the greatest act of compassion available.

All of this is in the teachings of Christ and his great apostle St. Paul.  What is important is that we believe what they taught and try to live according to these principles.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.