2 Thess 1:1-5, 11-12 / Matthew 23:13-22
People go
to Church for many reasons. Besides going there to pray and to worship
and thank the Lord, one of the things they would look for is good
preaching.
And people would even go to different services in different churches just to hear something inspiring.
Which may
be well and good. The question is, what happens after that is what
really counts. After hearing the Good News of salvation, how do they
respond?
In the 1st reading, St. Paul praised the Thessalonians for their response to the Good News of salvation.
They broke from idolatry and became servants of the living God, and they looked forward to the coming of Christ.
That was quite different from the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus was addressing to in the gospel.
They heard the Good News but what they did and how they acted were far from what it meant to be saved.
We have heard the Good News. It is not interesting news; it is not extraordinary news; it is not updated news.
It is the Good News of God's love for us, the Good News of salvation.
Let us act upon it, and then by the way we live our lives, others will believe we are saved.