21st Monday of the Year

Jesus scolded and accused the group of the Pharisees of blindness (Mt 23:13-22). The Pharisees failed to see because they kept gazing at their navels. It was a community enclosed in themselves. They worried about how to get more followers, they were obsessed with their individual perfection, and they worried about how to get money, from the temple, from the altar…

In contrast, Paul commended the community of Thessalonica. Their love was constantly increasing. They were persecuted and they suffered, but they didn’t complain about God’s unfairness. Instead, St. Paul saw in that persecution, a sign of God’s just judgment.

They did not pray to be spared the sufferings. Instead they longed to remain faithful: “that our God may make you worthy of His calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith” (2 Th 1:11). It was not a community of navel gazers, but focused outside, looking ahead to their mission in the midst of the world.