Faith hope charity

The evangelization of people is a theme which comes out of the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Friar Jude Winkler indentifies the text from the first letter to the Thessalonians as a thanksgiving which was likely among the first of Paul’s letters. The key elements of spreading the conversion of pagan people to follow the Way of Jesus are identified as the work of faith, labour of love and steadfastness of hope which are demonstrated by the assembly in the face of their understanding of imminent return of Jesus at the end of the world which was preached by Paul and which gave an urgency to his message. Our mind set today is far from the urgency of end times and as a result we are reluctant to seek the humility, faith and joy which the psalmist praises as the mark of the assembly of the faithful. The woes which Jesus declares to warn the Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew may be worth examination for their presence in our approach to building relationship with God. What damage might our prescriptions and procedures do to those who are attempting to respond like the people of Thessalonica to evidence of faith, love and hope which are the foundation for evangelization?