“There must be factions among you in order that also those who are approved among you may become known.” St. Paul, already in the first century, has to correct the Church in Corinth whose members had allowed selfishness and bad teaching to create division. The Love of Christ does not permit us to treat someone better or worse based on their social standing. In fact, it obliges us to commune with rich and poor alike: refraining from indulging and excess when we are with the rich, and sparing no expense when it comes to using our wealth to help and comfort the poor. We should in fact extend this equal treatment even to our leaders: refraining from indulging in their authority by giving them power they ought not to have, and coming to their aid when their weakness and poverty are made manifest.
Fr. Francis Therese Krautter csj