29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year A)

(1 Thess 1:1–5b)

1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: grace and peace to you. 

----------------------- ---------------------

Since the First Letter to the Thessalonians is the first letter Paul wrote, it serves as a model for all his other letters: sender, recipients and greeting – which was, in fact, the classical format for letter-writing in the Greco-Roman world. Within this framework, Paul introduces the newness of the Christian faith, making it clear that the Church in Thessalonica has its foundation and finds its identity in its relationship with God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is from this divine origin that the grace and peace which Paul and his fellow workers, Silvanus and Timothy, wish upon the Thessalonians come.

Paul introduces himself by his Roman name – Paulos – and mentions Silvanus and Timothy, who had joined him in founding the Church in Thessalonica. The First Letter to the Thessalonians is therefore a letter with multiple senders. The faith is proclaimed in communion. Every disciple of Jesus is called to proclaim the truth, the Word, from which faith springs. Every disciple of Jesus must speak with one voice alongside all the other disciples. One Word, one truth, one faith, one voice. This is the holy rule, the only rule, for there to be sound preaching. Communion in truth and faith, the unity and harmony of the preaching of the one truth and the one faith, gives vigour and strength to faith and truth. Truth and faith proclaimed amidst a fragmentation of voices, concepts and human words—proclaimed in disagreement and disharmony even in their very essence—do nothing but play into the hands of falsehood and error. A truth proclaimed in this way, a faith proclaimed in this way, has no impact on any heart. Division in faith and truth—which is one and indivisible—does not serve the cause of Christ.

All the writings of the New Testament refer in some way to the apostles; that is to say, the Church has an apostolic foundation. Christianity is not an ideology concocted at a desk, nor is it the revelation of some mystic, but it is a story – a story that men have witnessed, to which they bear witness, and which they therefore recount. And this is extremely important: I did not invent Christianity, nor did any of us; this is the great problem with all sects, where someone invents something and people immediately follow them. We must not invent anything; everything we say must be measured against the story of Jesus – this is the Church’s primary criterion; otherwise, it is a fabrication invented by man. The most we can do is speak of what has been written, according to the understanding and experience the Lord grants us; we cannot invent anything, we can only seek to understand with great humility and to the extent that we are able to understand.

A person without traditions, without roots, is like a plant without roots: they bear no fruit, they drift here and there, they can no longer distinguish truth from falsehood, they chase after the latest news, but they no longer have an identity. The Church, on the other hand, has an apostolic root, which is its connection to the historical Jesus; and our faith is in Jesus. If you remove the story of Jesus and, therefore, the apostolic succession that bears witness to it, Jesus becomes a figment of one’s own imagination, and this has nothing to do with Christianity.

Truth is not to be invented; it is to be sought, understood, loved and lived. Invented ‘truths’ are, in fact, called fables, lies and heresies. This is a point that must not be overlooked. Why do dogmas exist? Because they are necessary; it is not the case that the first thing that springs to mind is true; nor is it the case that, simply because the majority believed the earth was flat, the earth was flat. This is why we still read the Epistles and documents of the early Church today: they are the norm and the foundation of our faith.

The group in Thessalonica is called ekklēsia, a word used by the Jews in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew verb qāhāl (to call, from the Hebrew qol = voice). In Greek, ‘to call’ is kalein, which forms the basis of the noun ek-klēsia (calling out, convocation). The choice of ekklēsia, rather than synagōgē, is deliberate, to distinguish the community of Christian believers from other Jewish communities.

The ekklēsia is immediately presented in religious terms: en Theo Patri kai Kirio Iesou Christo (= in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ). The church is not something we create, but a call from God; it is God who speaks through his Word, and we respond; and the church is precisely the response that humanity gives to God’s call, to God’s Word, to listening to God—to God who speaks within history, a history attested to in the apostolic writings. For this reason, the Church is not a human invention; it is not that we come together because we get on well with one another, but we come together because of this one call from the Father. A call to love and to unite ourselves with his Son, and thus to form a brotherhood amongst ourselves.

The Church is realised on two levels; one is concrete: when we gather to hear the Word of God, we form the Church; we are gathered round the Word of God; yet this Church, which responds to the summons of God—who is the Father of all—is necessarily united with all the Churches, forming one single Church; otherwise, it becomes a sect and no longer responds to God, who is our common Father. The Church is extremely concrete: it consists of people gathered in a specific place for a specific purpose, yet at the same time it is universal. For Paul, the Church has a universal dimension that necessarily relates back to a local dimension. There is no Church unless it is situated in a specific place. And all the churches in specific places together form the great Church of the whole world.

Hence the sense of catholicity – ‘catholic’ means ‘universal’ – but also of concreteness; where one of these two elements is lost, the Church dissolves somewhat, either into ideology or into a sect: if there is no real community of those who listen, there is ideology; if there is no universal community, there is a sect and, therefore, the denial of the truth. It is interesting that I do not choose my brothers and sisters – if I choose my brothers and sisters, I do not love them, I love only what interests me – I do not choose my church; it is the collective of real people around me, who listen with me, labour with me, struggle with me, live with me, and share the same flaws and shortcomings as I do.

The church is made up of those people who are en Theo Patri (in God the Father); it is a complement to the notion of ‘being in’, that is, they dwell in God as Father. Man’s place is God as Father; there man is at home, there man finds family, there man finds his roots, there man finds himself. A Jewish tradition recounts that when God asked Adam, ‘Adam, where are you?’, He asked ‘where are you’ because Adam had moved from his place, and man’s place is God; that is where man is at home. The Christian is one who returns to being at home in God, dwells in God, and thus rediscovers his own identity.

And to this church, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy wish grace and peace (charis and eirēnē). This pairing is an absolute novelty, without precedent, because the Greeks greeted one another with charis – which also means ‘health’ (chaire, ‘be well’) – whilst the Jews greeted one another with shalom. Here is a marvellous Christian greeting that is both Greek and Jewish at the same time: grace and peace.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, in the Mystery of the Trinity

Jesus’ Prophetic Discourse (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

 Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

 The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)