The Tender Love of a Nursing Mother

Homily for Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

St. Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians is the earliest of his epistles. After founding the community of faith in Thessalonica, he moved on to continue his missionary work among other Gentile communities. However, he did not want to lose contact with them. Consequently, he wrote them a letter of encouragement. He writes to the church he founded in his most tender tone, reminding them of his affection, an affection which he compares to that of a nursing mother.

Without doubt, Paul and the other apostles faced serious challenges when sharing the Gospel. Throughout salvation history, prophets and evangelists experienced hardship and persecution. We are reminded of this through today’s Gospel reading on the memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist. Eventually, Paul would suffer the same fate at the hands of the Roman Empire.

Amid our own struggles to evangelize through the example of our lives, we can take solace in the example of St. Paul. Yes, he shared the good news about Jesus. Yes, he founded the church in, and performed religious deeds with the Thessalonians. Just as importantly, if not more so, he shared the ordinary gifts of life with them: eating and drinking, laughing and crying, staying up late and perhaps even rousing from slumber to care for someone in need. Indeed, Paul nursed his friends with the love of a mother for her newborn, bequeathing the Gospel through the gift of his very self.

Jesus also loves us tenderly and gives himself to us in the sacrament of the Eucharist.