1 Corinthians 11:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Not content with this, he then reminds them also of Gehenna. He confirms his words, terrifying them from every side and resolving a question often raised. Many ask one another in perplexity: Why do premature deaths occur? Why do prolonged illnesses occur?

The cause of many such unexpected misfortunes, he says, lies in sins. You will say: What then? Are those who enjoy constant health and reach venerable old age not sinful? Who could say that? Why then, you will say, are they not punished? Because there they will undergo the severest punishment.

But we, if we wish, will be punished neither here nor there.

In keeping with its significance, this passage of Scripture is usually appointed for the apostolic reading on Great Thursday. The following words of the Apostle Paul should be singled out for special attention: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27).

These words are remarkable for their dogmatic importance and force, for they indicate the essence of the mystery of the Eucharist. In this mystery, under the form of bread and wine, it is not merely symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ that are offered. Rather, it is the very Body and the very Blood of Christ, transubstantiated.

Otherwise the guilt of unworthy and negligent communicants would not be so grave. The Apostle would not have said of them that they eat and drink judgment to themselves, not discerning the Lord’s Body (1 Cor 11:29), and that they are guilty against the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Nor would such grave punishments break forth for unworthy communion. Yet the Apostle immediately adds: “For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and many sleep” (1 Cor 11:30).

“After eating something pleasant at dinner, you take care not to spoil what came before by bad food. Yet after receiving the Spirit, we give ourselves over to pleasures. We must be temperate both before communion and after it. The chief good is to approach the Mysteries with a pure conscience.

“Not content with what he has said before, he adds: ‘Let a man examine himself,’ as he also says in the second epistle: ‘Examine yourselves’ (2 Cor 13:5). If we do not approach a bodily table when suffering from fever and an overflow of harmful humors, lest we incur death, much more must we not touch this table with corrupt desires, which are worse than fever.”

These words beautifully explain how those who taste the Mysteries without understanding their power bring judgment of death upon themselves. Of course, this judgment does not overtake all with equal speed. Yet in every case unworthy communion cannot remain without recompense. In Corinth this was accomplished with manifest clarity in the sicknesses of many and the death of some.

But so that Christians would not draw any wholly perverse conclusions from this, the Apostle points to the means of avoiding judgment. This is the awareness of one’s nothingness before God, and the fear of angering Him by anything that can make us unworthy of His sacred and mystical supper.

Finally, if punishments do overtake us, we must not despair. These punishments are corrections by which God wishes to draw us away from deeds that lead to condemnation in eternal torment, together with the world that has not known the Lord.

The Corinthian Christians had been carried away by the passions of that world. This was true both of those who went to eat things sacrificed to idols and of those who greedily ate their own offerings at the agape meal.

“Having said, ‘He eats judgment to himself,’ and wishing this not to be taken as mere words, he points to deeds. He calls them themselves as witnesses. By this he acts more strongly than by a threat, showing that the threat has already passed into action.

“Not content with this, he then reminds them also of Gehenna. He firmly proves his words, terrifying them from every side and resolving a question often raised. Many ask one another in perplexity: Why do premature deaths occur? Why do prolonged illnesses occur?

“The cause of many such unexpected misfortunes, he says, lies in sins. Those who sin and meanwhile are healthy and prosperous in worldly terms are being kept for future torments. There they will undergo the severest punishment” (St. Chrysostom).

Therefore one should not reassure oneself, or surrender oneself to audacity, because one may commune unworthily and not undergo manifest punishment. No sin is hidden from the righteousness of God, and no sin can remain without recompense. At some time it will receive it.