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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Today we begin reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Christians in the southern Greek city of Corinth. Paul had gone there after his dismal failure with the sophisticated citizens of Athens. Here, in a city of very mixed population and with not a terribly good reputation for its morals, he did very much better. This letter is one of the most important documents of the New Testament and contains some of Paul’s most central teaching. So we will be staying with this letter up to the end of Week 24—three and a half weeks altogether.

As is usual in letters of the period, Paul begins by identifying himself and numbers himself among the apostles called by God. In its original meaning ‘apostle’ means ‘someone who is sent on a mission or with a message to communicate’. In the New Testament the word can be used in a general sense about someone who is sent on a mission (Greek verb, apostello). More particularly, it is used of the Twelve we meet in the Gospels, but was also applied later to Paul (who calls himself “the least of the Apostles”). The title is also sometimes given to a wider group including Barnabas, James “the brother of the Lord” and possibly Andronicus and Junias, whom we meet in the Letter to the Romans.

Paul uses the title of himself in most of his letters to affirm his authority as a messenger of Christ, an authority that was sometimes challenged. He reinforces his claim here by adding “by the will of God”. In other words, he is not self-appointed.

The greeting also contains the name of Sosthenes, who may possibly be the synagogue ruler who was attacked by his fellow-Jews in Corinth when their complaint against Paul was rejected by Gallio, the pro-consul of the local province of Achaia. (The story occurs in Acts 18 and is part of the First Reading on Friday of Week 6 of Easter.) If it is the same person, then he must have become a Christian either while Paul was preaching in Corinth or during the ministry of Apollos.

Paul addresses his letter to the “church of God that is in Corinth”. “Church of God” is one of his favourite expressions and used only by him. It refers to the community of Christians gathered together, often in one of their homes. Its Old Testament counterpart is “assembly (or community) of the Lord”. At this stage there is no formal building or institutional structure.

He also calls them a people “sanctified”, i.e. made holy in Christ. This refers not so much to their behaviour—for, as Paul will not hesitate to point out, they had many faults—but because they had been called, with Christians in other churches, to be a people set apart, distinguished by their commitment to the Way of Christ. The Greek word hagios, translated ‘holy’, means ‘set apart’, and the “saints” is a term used of all Christians in Paul’s letters, and not just those outstanding in virtue.

The opening greeting ends with a blessing and prayer for the “grace and peace” of God the Father and the Lord Jesus, a greeting we now use in our Eucharistic liturgy.

“Grace” in Greek is charis implies God’s love given gratuitously, and not because it is deserved. No matter how good we are, God is never indebted to us. The first initiative of love always comes from God, never from us, nor can we ever do anything to earn it. It is always there first waiting to be accepted by us.

The letter now properly begins with Paul’s uttering words of thanks for all the testimonies of God’s love, his “grace”, that have been showered on the Corinthians in Christ Jesus. He is especially thankful for the gifts of “speech and knowledge”, exemplified in their preachers and teachers. These are special gifts of the Spirit (mentioned later on among other gifts). ‘Speech’ is the gift of being able to proclaim the Gospel effectively. ‘Knowledge’ implies a deep understanding of the Gospel message and not just facts about the message.

The “witness to Christ”, which Paul gave to them, has not been at all in vain; on the contrary, it has clearly been confirmed by the gifts of the Spirit of Jesus which are evident among them. Those gifts of the Spirit enable them to serve the body of Christ, which is the Church, until the time when the Lord Jesus will be revealed at the end of time—the time of his final coming. Paul will speak at greater length about these gifts in chapters 12-14.

According to those chapters, a spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit enabling one to minister to the needs of Christ’s body, the Church. The gifts are not intended for oneself, but to enable one to respond to the community’s needs. There are different gifts for different needs. (Notice that Jesus’ final coming is no longer seen as imminent, as in the Letter we read earlier in the week.)

The Corinthians will need these gifts as they wait for the full revelation of Jesus Christ, when the hidden plans of God are to be made known. Then Christ will reveal himself at the end of time, the time of his parousia (Greek, ‘final coming’) and his Appearing. Before this, “the lawless one” will have ‘revealed’ himself, only to be destroyed by Christ (2 Thess 2:3-8).

And it is God who will give them the help they need to remain “steady and without blame” until “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” when he will return to take all his own to himself. By God’s calling them, they are united in a special way with Jesus Christ. (The ‘day of the Lord’ in its various forms was mentioned in this past Tuesday’s reading.)

And, Paul says in conclusion, “God is faithful”. He is a God who always keeps his promises. His love is unchanging no matter what we may do. And he is the One who has called us into fellowship with him through Jesus Christ, his Son and our Lord.

Paul will have many criticisms to make of the Corinthians in the course of his letter, but for now he begins with words of thanks for all the genuine good that he sees among them.

We can so easily be aware of the shortcomings of individuals and groups inside and outside the Church, and we are not slow to express our views when we get together with others to gossip. But it is important for us to be able to see the good in every person, in groups of people and even in ourselves.

Let us always begin by being thankful for our blessings, for all the good things that we see in ourselves and all those around us. It is sad when we are not able to give genuine words of praise and appreciation.

And let us especially today reflect on the graces that God has poured into our own lives. Let us, on the one hand, thank him sincerely for them and, on the other, ask ourselves how we have used them for his love and service and the love and service of our brothers and sisters. After all, that is why they were given to us in the first place (we will hear more about that later in this letter).

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Commentary on Matthew 23:27-32

We come today to the last two of the seven ‘Woes’ which Jesus throws against pharisaism.  Again it is an attack on hypocrisy and he gives two examples:

6. You are like whitewashed tombs…(vv 27-28)

On the one hand he compares the Pharisees to “whited sepulchres” (“whitewashed tombs” in the NRSVue translation), a phrase (like many others) that has found its way into everyday English through the King James version of the Bible. In other words, they are like the tombs that people in Palestine could often see spotlessly clean in their whitewashed stones, but which inside were full of the decaying and rotting bodies of the dead. 

One reason they were whitewashed was because a person who unwittingly stepped on a grave became ritually unclean.  Whitewashing made them more visible, especially in the dark. The Pharisees put on an external show of religious perfection down to the tiniest detail, but inside their hearts and minds were full of pride and hatred and contempt for their fellow men.  It was epitomised in the story that Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went to the Temple to pray.  The sanctimonious prayer of the Pharisee was:

God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
(Luke 18:11)

It was, of course, to some extent true, but it closed his mind to a different kind of sin altogether—his pride and imagined self-sufficiency.  As Jesus will say in another place, the greatest sin of the pharisaical is their sheer blindness, the inability to see themselves for what they really are. This, I suppose, is the most dangerous sin of the pious in any age, and yet the one least likely to be confessed and repented. And it can happen to any of us.

7. You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous…(vv 29-32)

Mention of tombs leads Jesus to comment on the Pharisees’ pride over the tombs they have built in memory of the prophets and other holy people.  They congratulate themselves that, if they had been present, they would never have partaken in the actions which brought persecution and death to the prophets.  Yet here is Jesus, the prophet of all prophets, whom they are preparing to kill. 

In the last verse of our reading, Jesus tells them to go ahead and complete the murdering of the prophets, referring to what is going to happen to himself.  This is another classic example of the blindness of the self-righteous. The more committed we are to our Christian faith and to the behaviour that it expects, the greater the danger that we, too, can fall into the same trap and see ourselves on a higher level than others whose behaviour we deplore and perhaps even attack. 

Whole groups of such people have been appearing in recent years, people who claim to know the Church better than the Pope, who still deplore the “heresies” of the Second Vatican Council, who close themselves off into elitist groups afraid of being contaminated not only by the ‘world’, but even by other Catholics!

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Commentary on Matthew 24:42-51

We enter the final phase of our readings from Matthew which will conclude on Saturday of this week. We will see selected readings from chapters 24 and 25 which form what is called the “Eschatological Discourse”. This is the fifth and final discourse, each of which is a collection of the teachings of Jesus and which are a feature of Matthew’s Gospel. This discourse is concerned with the end of all things, and the second and final coming of Christ to bring all things together.

The earlier part of chapter 24 includes the foretelling of the destruction of Jerusalem, an event which for the Jews of the time (including those who had converted to Christianity) must have seemed like the end of the world (just as, later on, the collapse of the Roman Empire seemed to be the end of the world for St Augustine and his contemporaries).

The early Christians had expected to see the Second Coming in their lifetime and the sacking of Jerusalem and the sacrilegious destruction of the Temple must have seemed the certain signs of the eschaton (Greek, meaning “last thing”). But, by the time Matthew’s Gospel came into circulation, that was already at least 15 years in the past. The end, although certain to happen, did not seem any more quite so imminent.

Matthew includes as part of the discourse a number of Parousia (Final Coming) parables. Following a pattern we have seen in other parts of this Gospel, they are seven in number. We have two short ones in today’s reading. Both consist of an exhortation for readiness to welcome the final coming of the Lord.

In the first we should be as alert in watching for the coming of the Lord as a householder would be to prevent his house being broken into and robbed. Like a thief, Jesus will come when we least expect him.

In the second parable, Jesus compares us to a servant who has been put in charge of the house while the master is away. This may refer to the community leaders in Matthew’s church and, by extension, to leaders of communities everywhere. It will be well for that servant when the master unexpectedly returns and finds his servant diligently doing his job. Readiness is measured by people consistently carrying out their responsibilities. On the other hand, the servant may think that there is no sign of the master (who had been expected to come earlier) and goes about beating up the other servants and leading a debauched life. It will be too bad for that servant when the master does suddenly appear on the scene.

The lesson is clear. Many of the Christians, who had expected the Lord to come soon, now see no sign of him and begin to backslide in the living of their Christian faith. We can be tempted to do the same thing. “Let’s have a good (i.e. morally bad) time now and we can convert later.” It is not a very wise policy. In the long run, the really good life, that is, a life based on truth and integrity, on love and compassion and sharing, will always be better than one based on phoniness, on selfishness, greed, hedonism and immediate gratification of every pleasure.

And the “Final Coming” may never come for some of us (in our lifetime) along with the chance to turn back to him who is the Way, Truth and Life—but our individual lives will come to an end. The wisest ones are those who consistently try to seek and serve their Lord at every moment of every day. They find happiness now and Jesus will not be a stranger when he comes to call them to himself. They are the ones who are both faithful and prudent.

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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:17-25

In today’s reading, a distinction is made between true and false wisdom. Paul presents us with one of the most central concepts of his teaching, and indeed of our Christian faith. He begins by saying that Christ had not sent him to baptise. In so speaking, he is not in any way minimising baptism. What he is asserting is that his special calling was to proclaim the Gospel. It was for others to establish Christian communities after he had gone to preach the Message in another mission field. Peter, too, asked others to baptise the gentile Cornelius and his household after they were received into the community (Acts 10:48).

Today’s passage focuses on the essence of our faith, which transcends all human divisions—a message just as relevant now as it was then. What he says arises out of his displeasure with factions which were forming in the Corinthian communities. Some were saying they were for Paul, others for Apollos, or Cephas (Peter), or even Christ. Paul emphasises that they are all, no matter who baptised them, one in Christ. It was Christ and Christ alone who died for them and saved them. Paul’s particular role or charism was to proclaim the Gospel mainly to new communities; he was a founder of churches and communities and so he kept moving from place to place. The other church ministries were left to others to carry out. It is a good example of the diversity of gifts which he will speak about later on.

Further, his role was to preach the Cross of Christ, but not with an orator’s eloquence which might rob the Cross of its real power. Oratory was a highly esteemed talent in those days, especially among the Greeks and Romans, but Paul makes no claim to it and for that he is glad. Paul’s mission was not to couch the Gospel in the language of the trained orator, who had studied the techniques of influencing people by persuasive arguments. What Paul shares is not human wisdom, but the wisdom of God. The strength of the message is not in how it is delivered, but in its content.

The Cross will speak for itself and does not need the persuasive language of the orator. The message of the Cross is unique. It requires a special kind of insight to see its meaning and its wisdom, which is itself a gift from God. For those who are not on God’s wavelength, it makes no sense, but for those who are, it speaks of God’s power—above all, the power of love.

Paul quotes from the prophet Isaiah (29:14) in which God says he will bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing. This was originally said in the context of the people of Judah and Jerusalem who thought it was an astute thing to do to make an alliance with Egypt and thus turn away the threats of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king. God had other plans to deal with him, plans which the ‘wise’ never dreamt of. In fact, Sennacherib was forced to withdraw from the gates of the city when his army was unexpectedly decimated by a kind of plague.

And where are the wise men now, Paul asks—all those pagan philosophers, including those Paul met in Athens and who laughed at his message. Perhaps Paul knew of the remark of Aristides who said that on every street in Corinth one met a so-called wise man, who had his own solutions to all the world’s problems (we still see them on our media every day!). Where, asks Paul, are the experts in the Mosaic Law? Where are the “debaters of this age”, those Greek sophists who loved to engage in long and subtle disputes?

Has not God, in Christ, made the wisdom of the world look foolish? Faced with the mystery of the Cross such people have nothing to say.

In a beautifully paradoxical statement (worthy of an orator!) he says:

…since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe.

This does not mean, of course, that Paul’s preaching is foolish, but that the message of Christ crucified is viewed by the world as foolish. Jesus said something similar:

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants… (Luke 10:21)

And so, the Jews are demanding miracles and signs as proofs of God’s saving power among them. Several times in the Gospel, Jesus was asked for a ‘sign’ to prove his credentials, even though his whole public life was a succession of signs which ordinary people frequently recognised. The Greeks, on the other hand, indulged in endless philosophising about ‘truth‘ and ‘wisdom’ without ever coming to grips with the realities of life.

The Cross is on a completely different level. It does not require great intelligence and learning to be understood. It can be grasped by the totally illiterate person. It is not a message of intellectual depth, but a witness to immeasurable love. It can only be accessed by faith and trust.

Paul and his companions are proclaiming a crucified Lord, a message of power shining through total impotence and apparent failure. On the face of it, it is a total contradiction—except to those who can see its inner meaning. No wonder it is a ‘scandal’, an insuperable obstacle for those Jews who were waiting for an altogether different Messiah. They expected a triumphant, political Messiah, not a crucified one.

Even Jesus’ disciples had this expectation. On the day of the Ascension, they asked him:

Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)

The answer, of course, was “Yes”, but not in the way they were thinking. Similarly, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus said to the stranger who walked along with them:

…we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
(Luke 24:21)

It was only after Jesus had explained the Scriptures to them that they realised the real truth behind their question.

And to the Gentiles it made no sense whatever. How could a crucified criminal be proclaimed as the world’s Saviour? Greeks and Romans were sure no reputable person would ever be crucified, so it was unthinkable that a crucified criminal could be the Saviour.

However, for those who have received the call, be they Jews or Greeks, Jesus on the cross speaks eloquently of the power and wisdom of God. The crucified Christ is the power that saves and the wisdom that transforms apparent folly into ultimate and highest discernment. And Paul finishes with a memorable and much-quoted statement:

For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Today, the Cross is still seen as a stumbling block and as nonsense by those who only see the external image. In a world dedicated to acquisition, power and success, it gives a totally unacceptable message.

The power of the Cross, the power of active non-violence is not understood, and the followers of Jesus are ridiculed and deemed irrelevant. As Christians living in this world, we are probably often caught in the middle. We are carried along by the power-success dream, and at the same time would like to be able to make the weakness-failure Way of Christ ours too. What we need is to be able to see clearly that the real power and wisdom is with Jesus’ Way, and that the way of the world ultimately leads only to nothingness.

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Commentary on Matthew 25:1-13

The second chapter of the Eschatological Discourse consists of three long parables, all of which are familiar to us. They have the common theme of preparation for the final coming of the Lord, whenever that will be.

Today’s reading is the parable about the wise and foolish bridesmaids. The story likely reflects common wedding customs of the time. The bridesmaids who attend on the bride are waiting for the bridegroom to come. The time of his arrival is not known. Perhaps, at that time, it was his way of asserting his male authority from the very beginning of their marriage.

In the story there are 10 bridesmaids altogether. Of these we are told five were “wise” and the others were “foolish”. The “wise” young women all brought an extra supply of oil with them while the “foolish” ones only had their lamps. The lamps consisted of oil-soaked rags at the top of a pole and needed to have oil added every 15 minutes or so.

The bridegroom was long in coming. The implication is that he was taking much longer than expected. In fact, he was so long in coming that the bridesmaids all fell asleep. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the call went up:

Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.

Immediately the young women got ready and trimmed their torches. The charred edges had to be cut away and the rags soaked in more oil. The foolish ones immediately realised they were running out of oil. They ask their companions to share some of their oil. These refused on the grounds that there was not enough to go round and none of them would have enough. The foolish ones were told to go off and buy some more for themselves.

However, while they were still away, the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went into the marriage celebration with him and the doors were shut. When the foolish bridesmaids finally arrived with their new supply of oil, they found the doors closed in their face. They cried out:

Lord, lord, open to us.

But the bridegroom answered:

Truly I tell you, I do not know you.

Again this is a parable warning us all to be ready when the Lord comes. In the early Church, he had at first been expected to come in the very lifetime of the early Christians. This belief is reflected in the First Letter to the Thessalonians (read during the weekdays of the Cycle 1 First Readings), which is the earliest writing of the New Testament.

But Jesus did not come and, by the time Matthew’s Gospel appeared, people were beginning to realise that his coming could be in a more distant future. It is in this context that today’s parable gives a warning. If the Lord was not going to come soon, then some people might begin to take things easy and become lax in their living of the Gospel. Today’s passage suggests that that is not a very wise way of behaving.

The bridegroom may not have come when expected, but he did come. And, when he came, half of the group were not ready. In other places, Jesus has warned that the:

..day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Matt 24:36)

Because:

the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
(1 Thess 5: 2)

The only policy is constant readiness. If we are not ready and he does come, then we may find the doors closed and hear what are perhaps the most chilling words in the whole Gospel:

I do not know you.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus says that, as the Shepherd, he knows his sheep and they know him. Not to be known by Jesus means to have broken our relationship with him through sinful and loveless behaviour. To be in that state when he comes is truly tragic. The choice is ours, as we have been given adequate warning.

While the Gospel is speaking about the final or eschatological coming of Jesus as King and Lord, it would be very complacent of us to think that there are no signs of its happening in the near future. That would put us in the same category as the foolish bridesmaids! While the final coming may still be far off, our own rendezvous with the Lord can be at any time. For all practical purposes, that is the time for which we must be prepared.

Our news media is full of reports of lives being cut short by accident, illness or violence. Any of us could be one of those victims, young and in perfect health with a whole life before us. But the Lord calls when he calls.

Will I have ‘oil in my lamp’? That is, what would I be able to show the Lord in terms of Gospel-centred living? Maybe we think the “wise” young women in the story were selfish not to have shared their oil, but there are some things which we have to bring to the Lord on our own. We cannot borrow the good life that someone else has led. It is has to be totally ours.

Clearly, the best way to prepare is not to think anxiously of the future, but to concentrate on the here and now. Let us learn to live totally in the present, to seek and find God there. If we can do that, then all the rest will take care of itself. And, whether the Groom arrives early or late, it will not matter. Because he has been constantly part of our everyday lives. And, apart from the insurance that it gives, is it not by far the best way to spend our days?

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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 Read Saturday of Week 21 of Ordinary Time – First Reading »

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Commentary on Matthew 25:14-30

Today is our final weekday reading from Matthew’s Gospel and on Monday we will begin the reading of Luke’s Gospel. Today also is also our last reading from the fifth and final Eschatological Discourse of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel.

There are two great passages left—the parable of the talents and the description of the last judgement—but we will only be taking the first of these. Both deal with the final judgment and, like the parable of the bridesmaids, are warnings on how we are to prepare.

The parable speaks of a wealthy man who, before he set off on a journey, entrusted his servants (slaves) with large sums of money. He gave them different amounts according to their ability. One received five talents, a second, two, and the third just one. A ‘talent’ was an enormous amount of money in the ancient world, so five talents was a veritable fortune. Originally, the term stood for a unit of weight, about 75 pounds or 30-something kilos. Later it became a unit of coinage, the value depending on the metal used. Actually, our current meaning of ‘talent’ comes from this parable.

The amount given out indicates the generosity of the master. But the money was not for their own personal enjoyment; it was meant to be used productively.

The first two servants both traded actively with the money they had been given and doubled their original capital. The third man, however, buried his money in the ground as this was considered the most secure place in a pre-banking society.

When the master came back, the first two presented their accounts. Their master was very pleased and they were entrusted with even more responsibility. To each he said:

Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

Then the third man came along with his one talent. He had not traded with it because he was afraid he would lose his money and said:

Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not scatter, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.

Ironically, he was the one who was given the least and from whom the least was expected. But even with that little responsibility he failed to produce. Perhaps he even expected to be praised for his prudence.

The master does not deny the charge of being a hard man, but he accuses the man of not having done even the least thing to increase his capital. He could have deposited or lent the money and got some interest. But he had absolutely nothing to show of his own.

The money is taken from him and given to the one who had five talents. Surprising? Unfair? Not really. This man had already shown he was a very good investment. And Jesus sums up:

For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

As mentioned above, the word ‘talent’, which in biblical times referred to a huge amount of money, now denotes a particular gift or ability with which a person is endowed. “He has a great talent for music; she has a great talent for design.” In that sense, we have all been endowed with talents in varying degrees or, to use a word which Paul prefers, charisms. In either case, they indicate some distinctive ability which is to a large extent innate or God-given.

Everyone of us has been endowed in some way. And, as in the parable, some are greatly endowed and others less so. All that is asked is that we make use of that gift or those gifts to the best of our ability, and not for ourselves alone (that is to bury them in the ground), but to build up the Kingdom and make a positive contribution to the community to which we belong.

At the end we will be asked, as the men in the parable were, “How did you use the gifts I gave you and how productive were they in furthering the growth of the Kingdom?”

Today then is a day for us to identify what those gifts actually are. It is possible that some people have never given it much thought. They see their Christian life in rather passive terms, just looking after themselves, living in conformity to the commandments of God and the Church, fulfilling their ‘religious duties’, making sure to die ‘in the state of grace’. But this, in effect, is to bury one’s talents.

Today’s Gospel makes it very clear that far more is expected of us. We are expected to make an active and positive contribution to the work of the Kingdom and to the Christian community as the Body of Christ. In practice, that means taking an active part in our Church, in our parish, and in making a contribution to the betterment of our society. So, it is very important for us to spend some time in reflecting on what are my unique ‘talents’ or gifts or abilities and then to ask how and to what end I am using them? The time to do that is today because, as we have been amply warned, we do not know when our Master is coming back to check his accounts with us.

The end of today’s passage indicates that if we do not move forward, or are not productive, then we go backwards. We cannot remain static or purely passive in God’s service. To do nothing is not a possible option. The more we give and share with others from the resources we have, the more we are personally enriched; on the other hand, to cling to our gifts and keep them just for ourselves is to become smaller in every way.

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Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3,14-17

In the First Letter to the Thessalonians (the earliest extant letter of Paul that we have), Paul seemed to be saying that the second and final coming of the Lord was imminent, although he was careful not to specify a particular time.

Apparently replying to further questions, Paul (or the actual author) in this second letter does not repeat all that was said in the first letter about what would happen to the living and the dead. What is being written here is supplementary to Paul’s oral teaching and the instructions contained in the earlier letter. All he is concerned with is to emphasise that the Lord’s final coming is not imminent, and that it cannot take place till certain specific signs have preceded it.

Although the Second Coming and its prelude is a major theme of this letter, Paul warns the Christians:

…not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.

In other words, they are not to be alarmed by predictions (false prophecies) or rumours or spurious letters supposed to have come from Paul suggesting that the “day of the Lord” is already on them.

“Shaken in mind” translates a verb often used of a ship adrift from its moorings and suggests a lack of stability. Here it suggests a kind of panic at the supposed imminence of the Lord’s coming. The Christians are not to be deceived by such false alarms.

The expression “the day of the Lord” comes originally from the prophet Amos (5:18). In the Old Testament, it is a time when God will come and intervene with judgement and/or blessing. In the New Testament, the thought of judgement continues, but it is also the ‘day of redemption’, the ‘day of God’, or of Christ, and the ‘last day‘, the ‘great day’ or simply ‘the day‘. It is the climax of all things. There will be some preliminary signs, but the coming will be as unexpected as that of “a thief in the night”.

In the second and final part of the reading, the author reminds the Christians to focus on the Gospel which has been preached to them and which has as its final purpose a sharing in the glory of Jesus Christ as Lord:

[Jesus] called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Our gospel” is the gospel preached by Paul, Silas and Timothy, that they themselves had received by faith. It is, of course, first of all God the Father’s because it originates from him, and Christ’s because it springs from his sacrificial death.

Let the Christians forget about worrying when this sharing in glory will actually take place, and concentrate on living out the “traditions”, i.e. the teachings which they had received from Paul and the other apostles, either orally or in writing. This refers to what Paul taught them when he was in Thessalonica. Since he returned from there, what he had written to them includes, in the message of the Good News, the principles on which a Christian should lead his life.

Until the New Testament took its final form, essential Christian teaching was passed on in the ‘traditions’ (a word which comes from the Latin ‘to hand on‘ or ‘hand over’), just as rabbinic law was, and it could be either oral or written. The four Gospels which we have now are basically built up from such written and oral ‘traditions’.

The passage ends with a lovely Pauline prayer, very similar to one in the same place in the first letter and which also includes the words “encourage” and “strengthen” (1 Thess 3:11-13). The prayer is for inner strength that will produce results in both action and speech.

It is a prayer we could say often for each other and for all those we know and love (or especially for those we find it difficult to love):

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God our Father, who loved us and through grace
gave us eternal comfort and good hope
comfort your hearts and strengthen them
in every good work and word.

At every age in the Church’s history, including our own, there are people who are convinced that the end of the world is ‘nigh’ and that Christ is coming in Judgement at any moment. Certain key periods, such as the end of a century or, even more, the end of a millennium, have produced a veritable rash of such warnings. So far, they have never proved accurate.

We would be better off listening to the advice of today’s letter and focusing our energies on living out the Gospel each and every day in truth and love. This is the best possible preparation we can make for that time which will come “like a thief in the night”.

And, as has been said more than once in these reflections, a much more realistic end for us to consider is that of our own life than that of the universe or our planet. In either case, however, the recommended advice is the same: live the Gospel day in and day out and the rest will take care of itself.

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Commentary on Matthew 23:13-22 Read Monday of Week 21 of Ordinary Time – Gospel »

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Commentary on Galatians 5:1-6

Paul continues to speak to the Galatians about freedom, a freedom they cannot find by submitting themselves again to the Mosaic Law:

For freedom Christ has set us free.

If only those words were emblazoned in huge letters in all of our churches! One finds either that people feel Christianity is restrictive of a ‘normal’ human life, or that it consists of living a restricted life for the sake of some future salvation.

By taking on again the requirements of the Law to which they are being urged by certain Judaising missionaries, the Galatians are, in Paul’s view, going backwards. They are giving up the freedom which came to them through the Gospel of Jesus. This freedom is a freedom from a life based on a law of external observances, many of them clearly of human origin and not part of being a totally fulfilled person. It was this kind of legalistic mentality which was creeping back into Church life that made the Reformers emphasise the importance of faith in Christ as the basis of life:

Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

To make the Law the rule of one’s life is to undergo a kind of slavery. By trying to live up to the rigorous demands of the Law—which few, if any, people could observe in its totality—the Galatians were taking on a heavy burden, a real yoke, which could only fill them with feelings of inadequacy and guilt.

Jesus in the Gospel invites us to carry a very different yoke, a yoke which he will carry along with us (Matt 11:28-30). It is a yoke which is “easy” and whose “burden is light”. It is a yoke of total surrender to his Way of truth, integrity and love. Because of our many weaknesses, to follow such a way can at times mean the denial of our lower appetites, but the bearing of this yoke can only be beneficial in the long run. It brings us to where we really belong. And it brings true peace.

In particular, Paul tells the Galatians not to submit to the requirement of circumcision which, of itself, has nothing whatever to do with the following of Jesus. Moreover, anyone who accepts to be ritually circumcised, in practice is bound to the observance of the whole Law. The Law is a unit and one cannot pick and choose—it’s all or nothing. Consider circumcision as a kind of sacrament that expressed one’s total allegiance to the Law of the Old Testament (of course, it also has a similar meaning for other faiths, e.g. Islam).

Again, those who look for fulfilment and salvation in the keeping of the Law have in effect separated themselves from Christ. They have “fallen away from grace”. They have put themselves outside the scope of divine favour, because gaining God’s favour by external observance of the law and submitting in faith to love and service of Christ are mutually exclusive.

Those who follow the Law believe that, by keeping it perfectly, God ‘owes’ them salvation. Their model is the Pharisee in the Gospel who thanked God, that through his meticulous observance of the Law, he was not like others. He saw all his imagined virtue as emanating from him personally. God should be grateful to have people like him around. However, his contemptuous remarks about the tax collector behind him revealed that, while his external behaviour was without fault, he was far from that inner love and compassion that the following of Christ expects.

On the other hand, those who follow Jesus know that salvation comes as a “grace”, a freely-given gift which none of us can earn, but which is given to those who surrender totally into the hands of the Lord. Ideally, that surrender takes place all during our lives as Christians, but the extraordinary thing is that, even if it is not made until the 11th hour, that salvation is still given.

Of course, as we shall see in tomorrow’s reading, putting off the day of surrender is not a very smart thing to do, but the point is that the door is never closed until we close our eyes in death. God does not have an accountant’s ledger. He only looks at me in the here and now.

So it is through faith in Christ and surrender in loving trust (itself a gift!), that we live in the firm hope of finding ourselves right with God. It does not matter a whit whether one is circumcised or not. The Christian community that Paul was addressing consisted of both circumcised Jews and uncircumcised gentiles.

Paul, in a lovely expression, says:

…the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

Faith is much more than intellectual assent to certain truths or dogmas which we are told to accept as true. It involves the total and unconditional surrender in trust to Jesus as Lord and as the Way to Truth and Life.

When this faith is active and strong, it results quite spontaneously in a life lived in love for God and in care and compassion for all those around us. The only really free person is the one who, in all circumstances, is able to respond in love, compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation to all the people and situations of one‘s life.