Word to the Wise
Monday, August 26, 2013 - Monday in the 21th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Thess 1:1-5, 8b-10 and Matt 23:13-22]For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
"Conviction" is not a word I often hear anymore in a religious context! I suspect most of us would associate it with the outcome of a criminal trial! Perhaps we might use the word to describe a belief, as in: "It is my conviction that....." but I don't hear that very often, either! Yet the New American Bible and the Revised Standard translations both use the word "conviction" to translate St. Paul's feeling of being convinced about what he is preaching! "Convinced" is a word that might seem more familiar to us, but sometimes we use that to describe somebody who is deceived about something! St. Paul is not deceived, but rather asserts that what he has preached is a truth that is backed by "power and the Holy Spirit!" In short, he didn't make it up and he knows what he is talking about!
He is speaking proudly of the faith he experienced in the Thessalonian community, one of the first that he established. I have to say that in my itinerant preaching, I have a similar experience, but I cannot claim to have established any of the parishes I visit! I hear the tremendous challenges that so many people have and how their faith in God enables them to endure, and also how sad they feel at times when their children or other family members "no longer practice their faith." I tell them that it is their "conviction" that is important - their consistent living out of the faith - that is the most important thing they can do for those children. If we are going to be "convicted" of something, the Gospel is probably the best! AMEN