Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians offer hope of the Day of the Lord.
November is, for Christians, the last month of the year, since with December comes Advent and the liturgical year begins again. Thus our minds turn once again to the end of all things, as well as our own individual ends, brought to our attention by the Commemoration of All Souls at the start of the month.
Our Gospel readings at Mass reflect this eschatological turn, but I want to focus on the second readings, in which we will hear excerpts from St Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians. This is probably the first of Paul’s letters, at least of those that have been preserved, and therefore the oldest surviving Christian literature, probably written from Corinth after Paul had travelled there from Thessalonica, where his initial preaching seems to have been cut short by some sort of persecution.
