Catholic Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5

"Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:7-8)

Moral Disorder in the Community

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among the Corinthians of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: a man is living with his father's wife. And the Corinthians are proud about it. Paul is shocked not only by the sin but by the community's failure to grieve over it and to remove the person from fellowship. He pronounces judgment in absentia: hand this man over to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. The purpose of this severe measure is not punitive but medicinal: the shock of expulsion from the community is designed to produce the repentance that saves. The Catechism presents excommunication in this spirit: not as a rejection of the person but as a severe call to conversion, a temporary exclusion intended to restore (CCC 1463).

The Leaven and the Passover

Paul uses the Passover metaphor: a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough. Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a fresh batch of dough, as you really are unleavened. Then comes one of the most Eucharistic images in Paul: Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The entire moral life of the Christian community is framed as the keeping of a perpetual Passover feast in light of the sacrifice of Christ. The Eucharist is not merely a ritual we perform on Sundays; it is the defining reality that shapes the entire life of the community throughout the week. To live in malice and wickedness while claiming to eat the Passover lamb is a fundamental contradiction.

Boundaries of the Community

Paul clarifies that his instruction is about those inside the community, not outside. He is not asking them to avoid all association with immoral people of the world, otherwise they would have to leave the world entirely. His concern is for the integrity of the community that gathers in the name of Christ. Judge those inside; leave judgment of those outside to God. But from within the community, remove the wicked person.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, the Corinthians were proud of their tolerance of serious sin in the community. Tolerance that does not love the sinner enough to call them to repentance is not tolerance at all. It is abandonment. The most loving thing the community can do for someone living in serious sin is to name it with the tenderness of a parent and the firmness of one who knows that a little leaven leavens the whole batch.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, our Passover lamb, you have been sacrificed. Let us keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Purge from our communities and our hearts the leaven of malice and wickedness, and give us the courage to love one another enough to speak the truth that calls us home. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.