Putting Faith in the Promise of Jesus' Return

Homily for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Last week Sunday we began reading from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians. Like so many of St. Paul’s letters, this letter was occasioned by a doctrinal problem. In this particular instance, the doctrinal issue is the fact that Jesus’ return did not occur as quickly as the early Christian community originally thought it would. St. Paul had written earlier to this same community in which he stated rather emphatically that he believed that he would still be alive on the day of the second coming of Christ. However, the Christian community began to wonder about the promise that Jesus had made about returning again. This issue began to create some difficulties within the community when the eyewitnesses and some of the apostles had begun to die. St. Paul himself had been imprisoned, and his life was under constant threat by his captors. Just as the Jewish elders and priests had put Jesus to death, his followers were now being arrested, tried, and condemned. The delay in Jesus’ second coming also gave rise to a group who began to teach that Jesus had already returned and that those who were still left behind had been abandoned. The first half of St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians is a defense against this kind of thinking.

The verses that we read this Sunday are a composite containing the final part of St. Paul’s defense and the beginning of the second part of this letter in which St. Paul offers practical advice to this community. The conclusion of the theological explanation shows us how the community had come to understand the person of Jesus. In offering a prayer to encourage the people of Thessalonica, St. Paul says: “May the Lord Jesus Christ and God himself encourage your hearts and strengthen them…” The title that St. Paul uses here – namely, the Lord Jesus Christ – tells us three things that St. Paul has come to believe about Jesus. First, he calls him “Lord,” the same title given to God in the Hebrew Scriptures. This shows that he applies to Jesus all the characteristics and power which the Israelites attributed to their God. Then he offers his name, Jesus, taken from the Hebrew name “Jehoshua,” which means “Savior” or “salvation.” Finally, St. Paul adds the title “Christ,” which is an adjective that means “anointed one.” It is a reference to the Jewish Messiah. In addition to these titles another theme is expressed; namely the grace that Jesus won through his death and resurrection is the source of the love and encouragement which St. Paul asks God to bestow upon the Thessalonians. This threefold title, the Lord Jesus Christ, reveals that the community was beginning to understand that the man Jesus was more than a simple prophet such as those who had been sent by God to their ancestors.

By invoking the name of Jesus and God together, St. Paul is assuring the Thessalonians that Jesus’ promise to return, like the promises made by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was faithful and could be trusted. Jesus will return even if that return is delayed and that all the eyewitnesses and disciples of Jesus die before hand. St. Paul blesses his converts and asked God to encourage them in the pursuit of the good works with which they have busied themselves as they wait. As you might imagine, those who had begun to sow doubts in the minds of the early community had done so while at the same time telling them that there was no need for them to persevere in their good works. If they had been left behind, why worry about fulfilling the commandments left behind by Jesus. Why worry about loving their neighbors? Why worry about building up their communities? Why worry about praying for and doing good to their enemies?

Having prayed for them, Paul then asks that they pray for him. However, the content of the prayer he requests is significantly different. He is not concerned with his own needs but with the progress of the Gospel he preaches. He uses a dynamic image to describe this progress, that of a runner. It is not that the runner brings the Gospel. Rather, Paul envisions the Gospel itself as moving swiftly throughout the world and bringing glory and honor to those who put their faith in it. In other words, Paul prays that the Gospel be heard and respected, that it move unimpeded wherever it goes. He appeals to the experience of the Thessalonians themselves. As he compliments them, thus strengthening them in their faith, he suggests that they are an example of the way the Word of God can take root in the minds and hearts of people and transform their lives.

It is this prayer that offers us who are living more than two thousand years later a reason to continue in our faith and in our good works. By complimenting and encouraging the Thessalonians, St. Paul is complimenting and encouraging us. Our lives can also be the way the word of God takes root in the minds and hearts of our neighbors. We, like the Thessalonians, can transform our world by our life of faith and charity. Just as the seven brothers of whom we read in the first reading gave witness to their faith in the resurrection, we too are called upon to give witness to our faith in the second coming of Jesus and in the eternal life he has promised to all who put their faith in him.