In All Circumstances

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent

St. Paul’s letters usually end with exhortations about living a Christian life. The technical term for this is “paraenesis.”  The final chapter of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians is no exception; however the staccato rhythm of these verses has led many commentators to refer to verses sixteen through twenty-two as “shotgun” or “machine gun” paraenesis. Each verse exhorts the Thessalonians to do or to avoid a particular behavior in stark, short remarks. None of the exhortations comes with an explanation. They are simply short directives: rejoice always, pray constantly, always give thanks, etc. To be sure, we should be fairly used to statements like this. The preceding weeks have been full of such exhortations: “Stay awake. Be alert. Stand erect. Be ready.”

Doctor Scott Alexander, a professor of Islamic studies at Catholic Theological Union, wrote the following words as he reflected on St. Paul’s words: “As Advent imperatives go, the mother lode is undoubtedly today’s second reading from First Thessalonians. The first seven verses are actually a series of discrete “exhortations” which some commentators speculate may have been derived from a primitive catechism. A striking feature of these exhortations is what “tall orders” each of them is. Rehearsed in reverse order, Paul enjoins the Thessalonian church to “refrain from every kind of evil” and adhere only to what is good by “test[ing] everything”. He warns them not to close themselves off from some of the radical prophetic stirrings which have already been the source of significant internal stress on their fledgling community of faith. As if this isn’t tough enough, he hits them with three more utterly uncompromising entreaties: Never stop giving thanks; never stop praying, and never stop rejoicing.” After listening to this list of do’s and don’t’s, I am tempted to say: “Is that all!”

While there is some very good advice in these short and direct statements, one of them in particular stands out to me. “In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” I suspect that it got my attention because it asks me to be grateful “in all circumstances.” Is that really possible? Can we really be grateful in our present situation as swirling around us is the sickness, death, economic hardship, and environmental devastation that human sinfulness has once again allowed to affect the economically and racially marginalized disproportionally — what Isabel Wilkerson would refer to as our “subordinate,” “disfavored,” and “historically stigmatized” brothers and sisters.

A big part of the answer to my question about giving thanks in all circumstances can be found in the implicit rationale for the selection of readings for the past three Sundays. Taking her cue directly from the Gospels themselves, the Church is encouraging us — almost insisting — that we see God’s mission and Christian discipleship first and foremost through the very same lens as both the Synoptic and the Johannine traditions see the ministries of Christ and his forerunner John: the lens of the bold and revolutionary prophecies of messianic liberation found in Isaiah.

When we stop to consider what our situation would be if Jesus had not come among us, Paul’s exhortation becomes all the more meaningful; for in Jesus we have been given freedom from sin, a reprieve and a pardon from the death sentence earned by Adam, a promise that God will prevail and that Jesus has prepared a place for us among his Father’s many mansions. How can we not be grateful!

Reflecting on this exhortation has led me to examine my own life of prayer. One cannot live in this place without realizing that it is a place of prayer. However, I have been forced to ask myself how much of my prayer is a litany of thanks and how much of it is a list of needs and wants. Does my prayer give daily thanks to God for the gift of the Messiah – both the Messiah of history as well as the One who has promised that he will come again? We have been so blessed by his coming that as we draw near to our annual celebration of his birth, I need to focus once again on the need to give thanks in all circumstances.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator