Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
Reflecting on I Cor. 15:1-11
That famous second reading today—I Corinthians 15:1-11—always fills me with hope. This is the chapter where St. Paul, writing to the church in the port city of Corinth, Greece, sometime between 53-55 AD, gives an account of who the people were who were eyewitnesses to the Risen Christ.
Now, this is a MUCH longer list than any given in the gospels, and it’s also coming at least fifteen years before even Mark, the earliest gospel, was written. That’s what makes it so exciting. St. Paul is giving a list of the known eyewitnesses to the resurrection, many of whom, he says, “are still living today.”
He lists Cephas (St. Peter) as the first eyewitness, followed by the Twelve, and then five hundred, then James (who became the leader of the Jerusalem church in the years after the resurrection), then other apostles, and, finally, to St. Paul himself. Mysteriously, none of the women who are so prominent in the gospel resurrection stories were mentioned, or probably even known by Paul.
The reason this stirs my faith so much is that if this weren’t true, it could easily be found out. All it would take would be to ask any of the people Paul named to confirm it. But Paul is so confident in this that he names the eyewitnesses, many of whom were very much alive in the mid-50s.
At a distance of 2,000 years, it’s a matter of trusting this account by St. Paul, and the accounts of the gospels. But in St. Paul’s day, he confidently assured his readers that these eyewitnesses were alive on the day he wrote his letter, and available for interviewing. That’s so exciting.
Imagine interviewing Mary Magdalene about her encounter with the Risen Christ.
Kathy McGovern ©2025