We, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one bread. While the passage that we read for today has some “Eucharistic” overtones, it should not be confused or conflated with the treatise on the Eucharist found in the eleventh chapter (I Corinthians 11:17-33). However, that doesn’t mean that the passage’s “Eucharistic” overtones are misplaced or that they serve no purpose at all. Paul’s major concern is the glaring division present in the Corinthian community. And it is unity of the community that Paul seeks to address in both passages.
As a people who partake in the same bread and cup, a Christian community is one. A Christian community’s unity is brought about by the one sacrifice in which all its members, by virtue of their profession of one faith and one baptism, agreed to participate. In the passage that constitute today’s First Reading, we see Paul quite aware of how the controversy over meat offered to idols in sacrifice is threatening this unity. For even though members of the Christian community who buy such meat for consumption were not doing so as a way of participating in those sacrifices (and as such were committing no sin), it could still be perceived as indirect participation in the said sacrifices. Moreover, being that there were those who were formerly involved in such cultic practices, there was a high possibility of them falling back into their old habits. In case such a scenario would occur, then such members will find themselves participating in two cups that are mutually exclusive: the cup of Christ and the cup of demons. Just as members of a Christian community participate in Jesus’ self-offering whenever they partake of the body and blood of Christ, so too do those who consume the meat that had been offered on the altar of idols. Consuming meat offered to idols makes them one with the idols. For the sake of the unity of the community, the members needed to “sacrifice” their appetite for such meat. The one baptism of Christ in which they had participated had united them exclusively to Christ who himself chose to sacrifice his divinity in order to be united to them. In response, as members of the body of Christ, they too needed to sacrifice their “rights” for the good of the entire body.