ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ
LOVE LETTER
30 November 2003ÝÝ First Sunday of Advent ©ÝÝÝ 1 Thess 3:12-4:2
St. Patrickís parish is in
Kowloon, Hong Kong.Ý There are four
weekend Masses including a childrenís Mass at 10:45, Sunday.Ý This is the parish where I was formerly
pastor. [email protected].Ý Cf. also Social Concerns Education: www.acpp.org --ÝÝ Fr. Gene Thalman M.M.]
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Today is the first Sunday of Advent.Ý During these next four Sundays St. Paul will
be writing letters to our community so that we will be prepared to celebrate
Christís coming this Christmas, 2003.
Nowadays very few of us write letters. Instead we
telephone or e-mail our loved ones. Yet we all feel a special excitement when
we receive a personal letter from a dear friend.Ý
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ In a movie I once saw, there was an
elderly man who lived alone and didnít have any relatives or friends.Ý But once a week, the postman delivered a
letter to his mailbox.Ý The old man
would open his mailbox, look surprised, smile and take the letter into his
house.Ý Later the townspeople discovered
that each week he went to the postbox in town and mailed a letter to himself.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ How many of you have never received
a love letter?Ý Raise your hand.Ý Well today is your lucky day.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ As Christians, we always have a
letter in our mailbox.Ý These letters
are written by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.Ý Among Paulís writings there are some very personal
love letters. Our reading today is truly a love letter. Paul writes this love
letter to the Thessalonian Christians but he also is sending this letter to our
community here at St. Patrickís.Ý That
is what the Holy Spirit makes happen when we read the Holy Scripture.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ You see,Ý in 50 C.E., about twenty years after Christís Ascension, Paul
visited Thessalonia.Ý He didnít know any
people there so he set up a little roadside stand, started repairing and making
tents to earn a little money.Ý Paul was
a tent-maker by trade. He made quality tents.Ý
Paul was a friendly fellow and quickly made friends with other workers
in the neighborhood.Ý Of course he told
them about Jesus and the kind of things that Jesus continues to do.Ý Paul also went to the Jewish synagogue each
Sabbath.Ý In a short time, Paul had a
little group of Christians who gathered together regularly to learn about
Jesus.Ý Most of these folks were not
Jewish.Ý Well, Paul was only there for
about six months and already he had a small thriving community. Things were
going great!Ý UntilÖ
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ The Jewish leaders in the synagogue
got jealous and started to report Paul to the Roman government and accused him
of being a threat to national security.Ý
To save the little Christian community from persecution, Paul had to
leave this little community.Ý But the
Christians promised to keep following Jesus.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ PaulÝ was very sad to leave.Ý He
really got to love these folks.Ý And
like a mother, he was worried about them.Ý
He was afraid they might forget some of the important things that he had
taught.Ý After all he had only been with
them for a short time.Ý He knew it could
be very difficult for them to keep being disciples of Christ.
Ý
GODíS WORD:Ý Two
months after leaving, Paul wrote todayís beautiful letter to these
Christians.Ý We have just listened to
four verses from this letter to the Thessalonians.
I
Thess: 3:12-13 and 4:1-2
3:12 ìAnd may the
Lord increase you and make you overflow with love for one anotherÖî
Paul sounds like a worried mother.Ý Such a mother is most happy when her
children are not only growing up in age and wisdom, she doesnít want her kids
to quarrel. Rather she wants them live in harmony and to love each other more
and more. ìOverflow with love. î
Ýìand for allÖ,
ÝOf course,
all parents want their children to love each other but Paul adds: ìand for allÖî The Christians of Thessalonia not only must love their family members
and good friends but Paul also insists that they love everybody -- even their
enemies, people who are pains in the neck and people who are just plain nasty.
ìeven as our love
does for you.î Ý
After Mass I sometimes ask a little child:Ý ìDo you love your mommy?îÝ Or ìDo you love your daddy?îÝÝ And nine times out of ten, the child, after
giving it some thought, will answer: ìYes, I love mommy.îÝ Or ìYes, I love daddy.î And the parent
smiles from ear to ear. However, an adult seldom tells another: ìI love you.î
Let me ask the married women a question: ìWhen was
the last time your husband said: ëI love you?íîÝ Please answer by smiling. Within the past year? Ö Within the past
two years?ÖWithin the past five yearsÖwithin the past ten yearsÖnever?Ý Ugh!Ý
I guess that some people have been married for forty
years and have never once spoken those words: ìI love you.îÝ It is kind of embarrassing for an adult to
tell someone that you love him/her.Ý I
think it goes against Chinese culture.Ý
It may be easier to say ìI love youî in a letter.
It must have been the same at the time of St.
Paul.Ý However Paul isnít uncomfortable
saying how much he loves this little community in his letter.
3:13Ý ìMay he strengthen your hearts, make them
blameless and holy before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus
with all his holy ones.î
Like a mother who tells her kids to wash behind
their ears and wear two of the same color socks when the grandparents come to
visit, Paul is concerned that this little community will be spic and span when
the Lord comes in glory. ìÖat
the coming of our Lord Jesus...î He
wants to show off this great little community.Ý
(Just as Fr. Moses, Sr. Lam, and the catechists will want to show you
off when Jesus comes in glory.)
4:1Ý ìNow, my brother [and sisters], we beg and
exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, even as you learned from us how to conduct
yourselves in a way pleasing to Godówhich you are indeed doingóso you must
learn to make still greater progress.î
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ The best way to prevent backsliding is to keep going
forward.Ý Itís like roller-skating up a
hill. Once you stop skating uphill, you roll back down.Ý The only way is to keep progressing up the
hill.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ If any of us have stopped growing
and advancing in our Faith and in our love for God, we should think about it on
this first Sunday of Advent.Ý We
certainly want to be ready when Jesus comes.
FINALE:Ý Please
raise your hand if you
Have a Bible at home?
Have
opened the Bible during the past month?
Will
open your Bible this week and read something lovely that God may want to tell
you?
30 November 2003ÝÝ First Sunday of Advent ©
TWO WORDS:Ý Thessalonian
letter
THEME:Ý Paulís
epistle to the Thessalonians is written for St. Patrickís community, Wang Tau
Hom.
TEXT:ÝÝÝÝÝ ìYou
know the instructions we gave you in the Lord Jesus.îÝ
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ I ThessaloniansÝ 4:2.
DESIRED RESULT: ÝFather, last
week you excited my interest in Paulís epistles. I never imagined that somebody
would ever write me a love letter.Ý
REFERENCES:
ìHis
[Paulís] primary purpose is to encourage this group of new Christians [in
Thessaloniaómodern day Salonika] who are living out their faith in the hostile
climate of a large Hellenistic city and suffering persecution from their fellow
citizens because of it (1:6; 3:3-4) and who are experiencing stress within the
community, possibly because of moral failings (4:3-8) and certainly because of
wrong ideas about the future coming of the Lord (4:13-5:11).
George M.
Soares-Prabhu, ìI Thessalonians, in The
International Bible Commentary, ed. by William R. Farmer (Collegeville, MN:
The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 1710.
30 November 2003ÝÝ First Sunday of Advent © 1 Thess.
3:12-4:2
NAME_________
Grade_____________
1. What is the first letter
in the Bible that St. Paul wrote? _____________
2.Ý In what year was this letter written?
___________________________
3.Ý Give three reasons why St. Paul was
concerned about the Christian
ÝÝÝÝ community in Thessalonia?
ÝÝÝÝ a. _________________________________________
ÝÝÝÝ b. _________________________________________
ÝÝÝÝ c. _________________________________________
4. Who were the two groups
of people that Paul wanted the Christians to
ÝÝÝÝ love?
ÝÝÝÝÝ a.Ý
________________________
ÝÝÝÝÝ b.Ý
________________________
5. (Optional) Tell about a
special letter that you once received.Ý
How did
ÝÝÝ you feel when you read the letter?Ý How did the letter affect your life?ÝÝÝ
ÝÝÝ How do you feel when you read a love
letter to you from God?
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Donít Peek!