Monday of Week 23 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 5:1-8 | Psalm 5:5-7,12 | Luke 6:6-11
You must know how even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough, so get rid of all the old yeast, and make yourselves into a completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be. (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)
Leaven is often used as an analog for sin in scripture, and it’s easy to see why. It takes just one sinner, fat from the spoils harvested through me-first-last-always trampling over others, to spiritually infect others around him, just like a tiny bit of yeast blows up a really large lump of bread dough.
But you have to wait quite a while for the yeast to do its work, and once the dough has risen too far (and is therefore “full of itself”), it gets punched down. Ouch.
Like unleavened bread, living the Christian life doesn’t require a lot of time or effort, just a commitment to be “made with love”. It also doesn’t mean you’re condemned to be dull – if you think roti prata or crepes are boring, you’re eating them wrong. ?
So let’s take a lesson from St. Paul and live the life that bears much fruit…and with a minimum of yeast. Amen.