First Epistle to the Corinthians

Old lady with cigar

During his morning walk on a pleasant Saturday, the preacher saw an aged woman seated on her front step, happily puffing a cigar. He walked up to her. “Good morning ma’am,” the preacher greeted her.

She looked up, smiled at him.

“May, I sit?” he asked.

Puffing the cigar, she moved a wee bit to her left and patted the space to her right. He sat beside her. For a few minutes, both sat silently just looking around.

“Do you walk daily? You look virile and healthy,” the woman asked.

The preacher felt flattered. “Yes. How about you?” he asked in return.

She smiled. “I don’t exercise at all,” she replied.

“Is it so. I couldn’t help but notice how happy you look. What is your secret?” he asked the ever smiling woman.

“My secret? It’s the cigars! I smoke more than a dozen a day,” she said proudly.

“Oh,” gasped the preacher.

“The extra big joint before I go to bed helps me to rise refreshed in the morning,” she added.

The preacher couldn’t believe his ears.

She continued, “Apart from that, I drink a whole bottle of Jack Daniels every other day.”

“What do you eat?”

“I eat junk food all the time at fast-food outlets.”

“What do you do on weekends?”

“On weekends? I pop pills, have sex! In fact, I’m waiting for my date to turn up any moment!” the woman beamed happily.

“You are absolutely amazing ma’am! By the way, how old are you?”

“Only sixty-nine. I am sweet 69. I love being 69!”

“Isn’t it wrong for living so frivolously at your age?” the preacher inquired.

“What? Wrong?” She snorted. “You are a preacher, aren’t you? Have you not read your bible? Go and read: Ecclesiastes 8:15, Isaiah 22:13, and 1 Corinthians 15:32 where you will find whether what I do is right or wrong. “

On seeing a car approaching the woman got up and said, “Goodbye. Go, read your bible.”

As soon as the preacher reached home he picked King James lying on his study table. He hurriedly turned the pages of the bible and read:

Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 8:15)

And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
(Isaiah 22:13)

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.
(1 Corinthians 15:32)

. By T.V. Antony Raj

One of the problems Saint Paul had to handle in Corinth was how to persuade the women to dress properly in the assembly.

In Paul’s period, women had been participating in worship at Corinth without the head-covering as was normal in Greek society. Paul’s stated that his goal was to bring these women into conformity with contemporary Jewish practice and propriety. In order to convince them, he put forward arguments from a variety of sources, though he had space to develop them only sketchily and was perhaps aware that they differed greatly in persuasiveness.

Man and Woman – 1 Corinthians 11:3-16

But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and a husband the head of his wife, and God the head of Christ.

Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon his head.

But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had had her head shaved.

For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off.

But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil.

A man, on the other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; nor was man created for woman, but woman for man; for this reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.

Woman is not independent of man or man of woman in the Lord.

For just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things are from God.

Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled?

Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears his hair long it is a disgrace to him, whereas if a woman has long hair it is her glory, because long hair has been
given [her] for a covering?

But if anyone is inclined to be argumentative, we do not have such a custom, nor do the churches of God.

Twenty years ago, in India, all Christian women, especially Catholic women, when they entered the churches covered their heads with a veil or the fold of their saree. But now it has become a fashion with women not to cover their head in church but wear coiffures in different styles. These women and young girls scoff at those few who cover their heads labeling them as old fashioned.

Even nuns belonging to certain orders wear sarees and do not cover their heads even while dispensing Holy Communion.

What bothers me and most Catholics is the fact that our clergy express pleasure by admiring the uncovered heads of our women folk in churches, be they saree clad nuns or lay women.

So, as Catholics and Christians why not, why can’t and why don’t our women folk, whether they are nuns or not, cover their heads in churches?

Recently, I came across the following video excerpt and was impressed by what Sheikh Khaled Yasin says.