The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 24, 2021

1 Corinthians 7:29–31

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

The context for the Second Reading for today’s Mass is an answer to a question about marriage St. Paul was asked by a certain person among the faithful in the Church at the Greek city of Corinth.  After speaking of the holiness of marriage, Paul counseled the unmarried not to marry, basing this on his understanding that the Second Coming was imminent.  If Jesus is coming any day now, he reasoned, then each Christians should be devoted entirely to preparing for this.  Marriage, in this case, would be a distraction.  

The expectation of the Lord’s imminent coming has lessened over the years, particularly since the signs spoken of by the Lord Jesus and the Apostles have not appeared yet, and so it is not a consideration at all when the question of a couple marrying arises.  All the same, Paul’s counsel remains valuable.  It helps us to understand the seriousness with which we must live our faith; it confirms the reality of the Second Coming; and it tells us of the attitude we ought to have as Christians in a dissolving world.

“The time is running out.”  Time has been running out since its beginning.  All of physical creation exists on a temporary basis, and at a certain point each physical thing decays.  We often live in denial that time is running out for each of us.  We do this partly in order to get on with our work and responsibilities, for to stare constantly at the prospects of death is to become paralyzed by fear or despair.  “From now on, let those having wives act as not having them.”  Paul connects his thoughts on the end times with his previous subject, which was marriage.  The verse applies equally to husbands as to wives: Let those who have husbands act as not having them.  Paul does not teach that spouses should ignore each other.  To the contrary, he has just spoken of how spouses should work for each other’s salvation: “For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you shall save your wife?” (1 Corinthians 7, 16).  Paul is saying that our own salvation is more important to us than that of another, even that of a spouse.  Another way to put it is that we are not to lose our soul in order to save another’s.  “Those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning.”  We cannot avoid engaging with others and providing for ourselves while we live in this world, but doing so must not distract us from providing ourselves with treasure in heaven.  As the Lord Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6, 19-20).  “Those using the world as not using it fully.”  We use the goods that will nourish and assist us so that we may serve God and one another.  The world offers many more things than these, and dresses them up very attractively, but we must beware, for also the fruit that Adam and Eve ate “was a delight to the eyes” (Genesis 3, 6).

“For the world in its present form is passing away.”  It is indeed “passing away”.  Yet in the time we have left, we ought to “till it and keep it” (Genesis 2, 15), as Almighty God commanded Adam and Eve in the beginning.  And we ought to “tend” and “keep” one another, as well, for we are passing from this world even as it passes from us.  By living in this world as a preparation for living in the next, we will live well here and we will be ripe for heaven.