TUESDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1 Thes 5: 1-6, 9-11 Ps 27: 1, 4, 13-14 Lk 4: 31-37
ENCOURAGING AND BUILDING UP
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” Paul, while enlightening the Thessalonians not to be needlessly anxious about the ‘day of the Lord’, exhorts them to maintain hope, vigilance and mutual edification. In doing so, he himself encourages them as he commends them for doing the same already. We have something to introspect here! Am I a pessimistic person filled with lot of negativity and useless criticisms? Paul invites the Thessalonians into two actions – encouraging one another and building one another up. Today, we have many discouraging realities around us: the weakened fabric of Christian families; Christian marriages that crumble in alarming numbers at times even due to silly reasons, many youngsters not even opting for the sacrament of marriage due to ideologies, priestly and religious vocations that have terribly shrunk, unemployment and stressful life, contemporary Christian children and youth often not strong enough to face the rough waters of life, elderly people helplessly left alone at homes or entrusted to the care of the home for the aged, widening divisions among the communities on communal lines, shallow faith life etc. Amidst these realities ‘reciprocal encouragement and building up’ would contribute much to mutual edification!
This evangelical virtue about which St Paul exhorts the community, does not come from psychological sessions or secular motivational talks, but rather from the truth of Christ’s resurrection which has conquered the world and offers us an unending hope. The gospel testifies it further – He is Jesus, one who liberates. He is Immanuel God with us and cares for us!
The theme of the Jubilee Year, ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ keeps resounding in our ears. As pilgrims filled with hope in Christ, can we do something to encourage others and build up the timid who live around us? Let us look for opportunities to communicate life and hope to those around us!
Response: I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.
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