Wednesday in the Twenty-First Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2020

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18

We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. For you know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone. On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you. Not that we do not have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.  May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 

Today’s first reading is taken from the end of the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians.  Paul sent this second letter shortly after he received the Thessalonians’s reply to his first, and both are concerned with the same primary subject: the end of the world.  For these Gentile converts, the very notion that the world would come to an end proved very disconcerting, as pagan belief had no room in it for a final judgment, or a heaven or a hell, for ordinary mortals.  Their faith in the Lord Jesus, however, compelled them to believe in all of his teachings, even those hard to accept or previously unimaginable.  Reading these short letters all the way through with an eye to the questions they were asking Paul rewards us with an understanding of the secular people around us who have heard of judgment, heaven, and hell, and may have some primitive idea of what they mean, but have no real conception of them: we see the enormous difference that faith makes in people’s lives between those who have it, and those who do not.

“We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.”  Paul phrases his words in such a way as to form a solemn command: he gives this instruction “in the name of our Lord Jesus.”  Paul made it very clear when he was providing advice and when he was giving a command, as when he advises celibacy for Christians (cf. 1 Corinthians 7, 6), and when he was ordering an excommunication (1 Corinthians 5, 3-4).  Paul commands the Thessalonian Christians “to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way.”  The Greek word here translated as “disorderly” is sometimes rendered into English as “idly”, but that is incorrect.  In the context of the letter, Paul is speaking of anyone calling himself a Christian who returns to pagan behavior out of a belief that the Lord’s coming is imminent and that he is already saved by virtue of his baptism.  Paul does not mince his words.  He wants such a one “shunned”, which is to say, excommunicated.  Paul recognized that these Christians came not from a Jewish heritage with strict teachings regarding morality, but from a very different world in which no moral code existed apart from the legal code.  The danger of the rest of the community copying such a one’s example moved Paul to this extreme course.  At all costs, the new Christians must remain true to “to the tradition they received from us.”  

Paul knew that without living models it would be hard for converts from the Gentiles to live as Christians, and so he says: “For you know how one must imitate us”, that is, Paul and his fellow missionaries who lived with the Thessalonian Christians for a time.  This imitation, then, was not some abstract set of rules, but living as they had seen Paul live: devout, faithful, prayerful, chaste, humble, honest — a man of service to God and man.  “Nor  did we eat food received free from anyone.”  He did not take advantage of his position to wheedle or demand anything from them, not even food.  Rather, “in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you.”  Paul emphasizes this in order to distinguish himself from the traveling promoters of pagan cults so common in those days, who really only promoted themselves and expected to be paid for their services.  In sharp contrast, “in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you.”  Now, Paul evidently joined up with other tent makers in the city.  He accomplishes two purposes in doing so.  First, he shows his own dedication to the Lord Jesus, from whom alone he hoped for reward.  “Not,” he points out, “that we did not have that right” to impose on the new Christians for food and lodging, for “the worker deserves his payment” (1 Timothy 5, 18), but in order to accomplish his other goal: “to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us.”  

St. Peter writes, “According to him that has called you, who is holy, be you also in all manner of behavior holy” (1 Peter 1, 15).  As necessary as believing in the Lord Jesus is, so is the need to live holy lives.  Belief alone is not sufficient, for as St. James wrote, “You believe that there is one God. You do well: but the devils also believe — and tremble” (James 2, 19).  True belief in God both inspires and requires holiness of life.  As difficult as it may be for those who have practiced the Faith all their lives and have the benefit of good examples in people they know or at least in accounts of the saints, so much more difficult is it for those who do not have these advantages.  All the more necessary for Christians today to practice virtue and to live a life modeled after that of the Lord Jesus.  Who knows what word, gesture, or action may lead another to the path by which he becomes a believer himself?  Holiness of life is the most important preaching we do as believers.  If we do not know the answer to an unbeliever’s question, we can look it up.  But if we do not live the life of Jesus, we may never get that chance.

Finally, Paul says, “If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.”  In the context of his letter, he is speaking of those who think that with the second coming around the corner, there is no point in planting seeds, working at their craft, or ordering goods to be sold in a month’s time.  The future is not now, but it is near.  Therefore, we must all carry on our work, for we know not the day nor the hour.  We can also understand this in a spiritual way, that the Christian who does not live a holy life and give good example to others will not eat at God’s banquet in heaven.