Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 425

We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.

Scripture scholars believe that Saint Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest document in our canon. Given my fascination with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, I find it exciting that our tri-personal God appears in the first paragraph of this first letter.

Even more wonderful is our place, the place of the Christian, within the story of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Too often writings about this key doctrine overlook the roles of the individual Christian and of the whole Church. They're like splendid oil paintings without a canvas. They're floating in the ether, a vision in the air, without grounding in our everyday experience.

Saint Paul did not make that mistake; he could not make it because he knew the Trinity before it became doctrine; it was never an abstract doctrine for him. In fact the word trinity did not appear till three hundred years later. 

Saint Paul, in his excitement about the life of the Christian, found inspirations piling on top of each other as he wrote, each more dazzling than the last. Perhaps we can parse this paragraph to feel his excitement more intensely:

We give thanks to God always for all you... 

The missionary had set out into a vast world as the leader of a little band of believers. Like anyone else, he looked for affirmation from his hearers. Would they get his Spirit? Would they believe as he believed? Apparently, the Thessalonians had responded enthusiastically and Saint Paul was delighted. 

"...remembering you in our prayers..." 

If he had left their immediate presence he was never far from them in mind, heart or prayer. He had to admire their "work of faith, labor of love and endurance in hope..." (We should notice that other "trinity:" faith, hope and love!)

"... in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ..." 

Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so does the Christian live and act in hope that our efforts as God's people will not be lost in a sea of futility. Everything Jesus did and represented seemed to perish when he died; if there was hope there seemed to be nothing to hope for. Until he was raised up. 

...before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen. 

Our lives and everything about our lives are gifts of the Father and given back to the Father. 

For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.

It is the Father who sends the Son and the Spirit to us; they in turn bring us back to the Father.



"The Gospel" is properly heard in the context of the Mass. We can study it elsewhere, of course; and live it in a thousand ways. We proclaim the gospel with quiet conversations and with loud street demonstrations, but the Gospel nonetheless belongs to the Church's liturgy -- the Eucharist, the Sacraments, our Liturgy of the Hours. This is where we take our place before the Father's throne -- represented by the Presidential Chair -- to receive the Spoken Word Made Flesh and the Breath of his Holy Spirit. 






I should acknowledge also today's feast. Saint Augustine's greatest work was his teaching the western world in plain language (Latin) the doctrine of the Trinity had been only recently expounded in Greek.