Unhesitatingly and unsparingly Paul rebukes the Christian community at Corinth for allowing their differences to divide them. The act of sharing had got lost. The rich did not share their food but ate it in little exclusive groups by themselves, hurrying through it in case they had to share it while the poor had next to nothing. The result was that the Supper of the Lord at which social differences between members of the Church should have disappeared only succeeded in reinforcing these same differences.

A Christian community where social and class distinctions exist is no true community at all. A real community-parish-BEC is a body of people who are united in Jesus Christ, practise the gift of sharing. When we wish to keep things to ourselves and our own groups, we are not even beginning to be Christian. How can we bear to have so much while others have so little? We could perhaps be like the Corinthians and find our greatest privilege not in jealously guarding our talents and possessions but in sharing them freely with the needy, regardless of race, religion or class.