NOTES for Co2 10:1

Paul characterizes his relations and communication with the brothers of the Corinthian church with a paradoxical phrase. He writes: face to face with you I am timid, but from a distance I am bold. At the same time Paul mentions the meekness and gentleness of Christ, which, one may think, also condition his own meekness in communicating with the brothers. Here, of course, one could observe that when meeting a person face to face, it often happens that the words one had prepared to say to him turn out to be inappropriate or unnecessary, and then one says something quite different from what one had intended and what, from a distance, it seemed one would certainly say at the meeting.

A personal meeting always changes a person's inner, spiritual and psychological state: from a distance we are rarely able to remember a person as he is; most often we conduct an inner dialogue not with him as such, but with the image of him that has formed in our consciousness. At a meeting the image often turns out to be little like the real person, and then, if we want communion with the real person and not with the picture we have drawn, we have to replace the prepared words with others, more suitable.

When the issue is Christians and communion in Christ, in that spiritual space where He determines the quality of communion, the gap between picture and reality may turn out to be still greater. Indeed, sin in any Christian evokes only rejection and nonacceptance. The concrete person committing that sin is another matter: one can love a person even despite his sins.

In our fallen world, however, loving at a distance is very difficult, if by love we mean relations that must be maintained and not emotions experienced by a person. From a distance sins seem so great that they seem completely to obscure the sinner, so that from a distance usually nothing comes to mind except words of denunciation. Face to face is another matter: there one begins to see the real, living person whom one loves.

From a distance it seems quite simple to strike at sin together with the sinner; face to face one understands that striking indiscriminately is no good and that helping a person be freed from sin is not nearly as simple as it seemed from a distance. Then boldness and determination give way to that very meekness and even timidity of which the apostle writes: the work ahead is almost jewelry work, and it must be done together with Christ so as to help, not harm.