Word to the Wise
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 - Wednesday in the 21th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Thess 2:9-13 and Matt 23:27-32]As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom and glory. And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in your who believe. [1 Thessalonians]
St. Paul was clearly fond of the community he founded at Thessalonika and worried about them staying constant in their faith in the midst of a society that was polytheistic at best and dissolute at worst. So, he speaks to them like a parent who wants to encourage and exhort. Teachers do the same and so must pastors. I have little patience with pastors who thunder fire and brimstone and sin from the pulpit or vent their pet peeves. One well-known study shows that if all the ex-Catholics in this country were put into a single denomination, it would be the second largest Christian denomination in the USA next to the Catholic Church!! That same study showed that poor preaching was a major factor in the departures.
St. Paul's faith in the power of the word of God to move people in the way of God's path is one all preachers should adopt. The Christians of the community in Thessalonika received God's word from Paul but recognized it as God's word and not Paul's. This is a word that encourages us even as it may confront us and exhort us to conversion as Jesus does the scribes and Pharisees in today's gospel scripture. The task of a good preacher is to make that word accessible and stay out of the way! AMEN