In today’s reading, we continue to hear excerpts from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Today’s message from Paul calls us to holiness. Paul encourages us to remain true to our Christian values and to live out the values of our faith in the reality of our lives. I remember Brother Francisco from when I served at the mission site in the jungles of Ecuador as a missionary with the Comboni Missionaries. I remember him telling the youth group there in our mission site that their lives at that present moment were the fruit of how they lived in the past, that they were called out of their faith to make decisions that would bring forth the fruits of their faith in the future. In our modern world, many people do what feels good, making choices based upon short-term pleasures. Instead of being drawn into the ways of the world, we are to heed Paul’s call to holiness. We are not called to make decisions because they are the politically correct thing to do, or because we just go with the flow with what everyone else is doing in our society. The Thessalonians that Paul addressed in today’s reading were not coming out of a strong Jewish background; rather, they had been idol worshippers who had previously followed other practices that were contrary to the values that Jesus taught. The Thessalonians fought against so much of what was going on in the secular world around them just as we also do today. Let us remember that holiness rests in those little everyday ordinary moments that make up our day on our journey. Our holiness will be cultivated and lived out in those everyday moments of life.
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