In the older liturgical cycles this Sunday is known as Septuagesima, which is the Latin word for 70th. The idea is that it was roughly about 70 days from Easter, and the Church began the pre-Lenten period where the tone became more serious and contemplative before plunging headlong into the austerity of Lent. While pre-Lent is more a memory than anything else in modern lectionaries and calendars, we can take some time to reflect on a very serious item from today's readings for Mass.
The Church in Corinth had a few people in it that had (correctly) surmised that the idols, to which their pagan compatriots sacrificed and then from those sacrifices put on feasts or resold as sanctified food, had no real power and therefore the sacrifices were null and void. (1 Cor. 4.8-6) St. Paul agreed, technically, with them, noting the underlying premise was accurate and that the food was just that...food. He however follows up with a very important caveat: just because it's so doesn't mean it's the whole picture.
St. Paul goes on to say that while the food is just food and the deities to which it was offered were nothing, treating it as such sends the wrong message to other people. Let's take what St. Paul states and expand on it:
Just because we know the deities to whom the food was offered aren't "real" or hold any power, some believers aren't so grounded.
Just because we know the deities as such aren't real and the sacrifice invalid does not mean their adherents feel the same way.
Disregard of the efficacy of sacrifice or service and still participating can and often is seen as validating it.
So while we know it's bunkum but we still participate because it's fun or nourishing or what have you, they don't feel the same way. Someone new to the faith may get confused and fully participate and not disengage from worship of a false god and in so doing turn from God and sustain real spiritual harm. Someone not practicing the faith may see this as validation of their practices and unreceptive to the Good News that Jesus had redeemed us from Sin and Death to restore us to full fellowship with God and sustained separation from God, sustaining spiritual harm. Jesus died for these people to deliver them from this very separation from God, why would we push them right back in? Is the death of God the Word Incarnate that cheap to us? His resurrection that unremarkable?
That's a high price for being right. Because we didn't see the whole picture (and how can we?), we directly or indirectly brought harm. So as we enter pre-Lent, let's keep in mind our actions, no matter how "right", may ultimately be "wrong". So let us approach everything in humility and love. The eternal well-being of others may well depend on it.
