Keep Good Company

Corruption is a word that means far more than food left too long in the sun or viruses gumming up the works in computer programs.  It means more than genetically modified or altered food many people find suspect and corrupted versions of the real thing – like wheat, corn and soybeans.

During this Easter season with our focus on the resurrection, corruption has special meaning.   Consider 1 Corinthians 15 where we read about the resurrection of the dead: “It [body] is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.  It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.  It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.”  This passage helps us better understand the resurrection and the meaning of a raised body.  It’s a spiritual one.

Consider other parts of 1 Corinthians 15. “…If the dead are not raised:  Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  Do not be led astray:  Bad company corrupts good morals.”  This attitude of “eat, drink [and be merry] for tomorrow we die” is the springboard on which Pope Francis – when he was cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires – launched his “attack” on corruption caused by a lot more than “bad company.”  His meditations on this topic are presented in the 2013 book “The Way of Humility: Corruption and Sin – On Self-Accusation.”

Corruption is a word that strikes to the heart of what plagues our society – secular, as well as religious.  Pope Francis understands this plague on all our houses that in the U.S. applies to our Houses of Congress, and perhaps even the one called White.  It applies to all of us as well, according to Francis, who said, “We must understand the danger of the personal and social collapse that corruption brings…a habitual state of everyday complicity with sin can lead us to corruption…We know that we are all sinners, but the new thing that has now entered the collective imagination is that corruption seems to be part of the normal life of society, an aspect of citizenship that is denounced but acceptable...”  He said this in 1991 while in Argentina, but his point is just as applicable to the U.S. in 2014.

The Pope defined corruption this way:  “A situation of sin and a state of corruption are two different things, though closely interrelated…Corruption should not be confused with vices…Corrupt people always try to keep up a good appearance…Corrupt people cultivate their good manners to the point of fastidiousness so as to cover up their evil habits…corrupt people set themselves up in judgment over others: they themselves are the measure of morality.” 

Francis offers the following example of the “acceptable shamelessness” of corruption.  We should all pay close attention for he speaks not of high-ranking politicians, but of us: “Stealing a woman’s purse is a sin, and the thief is sent to prison, and the woman tells her friends…And the woman in question, who had her purse snatched, never even thinks about what her husband is like in business matters, how he cheats the state by not paying taxes, gets rid of his employees every three months to avoid dependency in employment relations, and so on.  And her husband, and perhaps herself, boasts about these business tricks and underhanded dealings.  This is what I call acceptable shamelessness…”

So, let’s keep good company (Jesus), and take to heart Pope Francis’ conclusion: “Corrupt people have no hope.  Sinners hope for forgiveness, but corrupt people don’t, because they do not feel that they are in sin.”  Other good company is Francis who has said, “I am a sinner.  This is the most accurate definition.  It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre.  I am a sinner.” 

Have we hoped for forgiveness this Easter season? 

Deacon David Pierce