Monthly Archives: November 2022

Maranatha!

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Christ, vested as a medieval bishop, distributes the Holy Communion to the apostles: on one side, St. Peter leads six others to receive the Holy Bread while St. Paul, on the other side, leads five others to receive from the Holy Cup. In the Didache, the celebrant invites the faithful to Holy Communion: “Let grace come and this world pass away.” The faithful answer: “Maranatha!”


If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love for all of you in Christ Jesus. (1 Cor. 16:22-24)

These sentences are part of the postscript, the “P.S.” that St. Paul adds in his own handwriting at the end of this first letter to the parish in Corinth. “Anathema” is “cursed” and is the same word the ecumenical councils use when denouncing the teachings that were condemned: “If anyone teaches that the Word is not divine in the same way the Father is divine, let that person be anathema!” Anathema marks those who are excluded from the fellowship of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Although St. Paul had difficult and challenging things to say to the Corinthians, he repeatedly stresses his love for them and that he does not want any one of them to be lost or cast aside. His love for the Corinthians–as a parish community and for each of them personally–is always his prime motivation.

“Maranatha!” can be translated several ways, which is why many translations today leave it untranslated. It can mean, “Come, our Lord!” Or it can mean, “Our Lord comes!” Both meanings are appropriate and maybe St. Paul meant the Corinthians to hear both meanings at the same time. Liturgical practice–described in the Didache— from about the same time that St. Paul was writing these words used “Maranatha!” as the people’s response to the invitation to receive Holy Communion at the Eucharist.

By this one word–Maranatha!–Paul strikes fear into them all. But not only that: he points out the way of virtue. As our love for God’s coming intensifies, there is no kind of sin which is not wiped out.

St. John Chrysostom (4th century), Homily 44 on 1st Corinthians

St. Paul expected his letter to be read at the Eucharist so his comments about the holy kiss and “Maranatha” are also connections to what the parish is about to do: pray together, exchange the Kiss, give thanks, and receive Holy Communion.

“Maranatha!” indeed.

Priscilla & Aquila Greet You

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This icon shows SS. Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila working together as tentmakers and leatherworkers. Apollos is depicted as a child on Priscilla’s lap because she taught him everything he knew about the Faith (Acts 18, Romans 16).


The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you warm greetings in the Lord. All the brothers and sisters greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. (1 Cor. 16:19-20)

Most letters in AD 1st century closed with a series of greetings. Almost all the epistles of the New Testament close with a series of greetings to those among whom the letter was read. The greetings at the end of 1 Corinthians are the most complex series of greetings at the end of any of St. Paul’s letters. St. Paul greets various people personally and sends greetings from various communities, such as “the churches of Asia” and the parish which meets in the house of Priscilla and Aquila.

Priscilla and Aquila are mentioned several times in the New Testament, in the Acts of the Apostles and in St. Paul’s letters. They were a Jewish-Christian couple and two of the first Christians in the capital city of Rome. When the emperor Claudius expelled the Jews form Rome because of the unrest and riots about Christ, Priscilla and Aquila went to Corinth. Then they moved to Ephesus and lived there, allowing a parish to meet in their home. After Ephesus, they were able to move back to Rome and hosted another parish in their home.

Priscilla is almost always mentioned before her husband, Aquila. This suggests that she was the more socially prominent member of the couple and that her family was more prominent than Aquila’s; yet he does not seem jealous of her prominence. She is often mentioned by early Christians as the probable author of “the Epistle to the Hebrews.” (The other possible author, Apollos, had been her student; she taught Apollos “everything he knew” about Christianity, according to St. Paul. Either way, she was–directly or indirectly–responsible for Hebrews.)

The “holy kiss” exchanged among Christians at the Eucharist was a scandal because people were not supposed to kiss anyone who was not a relative. Rumors of Christians kissing each other made non-Christians think incest and adultery were common Christian practices.

SS. Priscilla and Aquila hosted the Eucharist in their home. During the Eucharist, strangers–or at least, non-relatives–kissed each other. Priscilla and Aquila most have been known for allowing such scandalous and provocative behavior in their home; neighbors probably thought they were encouraging loose morals and sexual immorality and were hosting orgies on a regular basis.

Priscilla taught men the Faith. She and Aquila hosted strangers who kissed each other. Both activities were scandalous. Yet she and Aquila bravely persevered, working with St. Paul to spread and nurture the Church. They remain among the most important people of 1st-generation Christians. Through their teaching and leadership, they—especially Priscilla—have shaped a large part of what we now consider mainstream Christianity.

See my video discussion of St. Priscilla here. be sure to use the password: 3s=c03I=

Offering = Fellowship with the Saints

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Everyone was expected to bring something to offer at the Eucharist, even if it was only the clean water to be mixed with the chalice. No one expected to receive a portion of the Holy Gifts in Communion if they had not first offered something themselves, no matter how humble. The offering of bread, known as “prosphora,” are an expression of fellowship with the saints on earth as well as the saints in heaven.


Concerning the collection for the saints, as I have ordered the churches of Galatia, so you should do likewise. On the first day of the week let each one of you put aside whatever he or she has gained, so that the collection doesn’t take place when I come. (1 Cor. 16:1-2)

Among the early Christians, there was no modern plumbing in the churches. No one could turn on a faucet to fill a cruet with water. If water was needed—and it was needed to mix with the wine in the chalice—then someone had to bring it to church from a well or a fountain. And among the early Christians, everyone was expected to bring something to offer at the Eucharist: most people probably would not bring cash but they could bring food or clothing to share with the poor. They brought the bread and wine to be placed on the altar. In Rome, orphans–who had nothing and were themselves the recipients of charity–brought the clean water to mix with the chalice for Holy Communion.

Taking a collection of some sort was standard practice at the Eucharist. Offerings (prosphora, in Greek) were a sign that the people making the offering had given themselves and their whole lives to God. The prosphora—food, clothes, money—collected for the saints was an important expression of fellowship, whether the people (“the saints”) receiving the prosphora were local or far away. Making an offering—bringing prosphora—to the Eucharist was an expression of fellowship with the needy saints on earth as well as with the glorious saints in heaven.

St. Paul is organizing a relief effort for the Christians in Jerusalem because there was a famine and severe need there. He is asking all the churches he has founded or visited to contribute to this collection. He will make sure the money gets delivered to Jerusalem, but he wants the local parishes to collect the money before he arrives so that he doesn’t have to wait for the collection itself to be made; he just wants to pick up the money they have already collected and send it on. He was afraid it would take too long if the local parishes waited to take up the collection and that it would arrive in Jerusalem too late.

St. Paul is organizing this relief effort for the Christian community in Jerusalem to demonstrate that he has no animosity or ill will for Christians who were not Gentiles. He is working to relieve the hunger and needs of the Jewish Christians who might have suspected that he thought Gentile Christians were better in God’s eyes than the Jewish Christians were. St. Paul wants to demonstrate that he does not think more highly of Gentile Christians and that all Christians are united in Christ.

St. Paul instructs the Christians in Corinth to organize the collection on Sundays, “the first day of every week,” at the celebration of the Eucharist. Many churches still call the bread brought to church for the Eucharist prosphora. The life of devotion to Christ and public service to the poor go hand-in-hand at the Eucharist. Fellowship with Christ cannot be divorced from fellowship with those in need.