There is something terribly contemporary in today’s 1streading. In Paul’s time, the most difficult challenge for pagans who became Christians was to give up their dissolute living, their sexual habits. But God demands we lead holy lives, and there is no compromise here.
Notice how Paul equates his teaching on sexual matters with God’s will. Not to obey his will is to reject him. To modify a jingle: Faith and morals go together; You don’t take one without the other. But Paul does not leave these recent pagans without consolation: “God also gives his Holy Spirit to you.”
Our society today is not very different from the society Paul was addressing. Isn’t there a tendency of some Catholics to minimize sexual sins, denying sexual activity has to wait for marriage between one male and one female? In doing so, these do a terrible injustice, especially to the young.
Now for the Gospel: Here, in the parable about oil for the lamps, Jesus teaches that no community can dispense the individual members of personal responsibility. We enter eternal life as we are presently living. Prayer is the moment when each one faces God alone. Pray that the Lord will give us the gift, and the habit, of daily prayer.
Resolve: I shall say some extra prayers today for those contemporary Thessalonian converts, especially for those addicted to pornography: that they respond to Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit.