Feast of Saint Adrian of Canterbury (9 January 2024)

In the first reading for today’s Mass, we get a beautiful message of love and encouragement from God our Father. The passage is the beginning of Saint Paul’s first letter to the Christian community in Corinth, of whom he was especially fond. But because that letter is divinely inspired, it applies to all of us, and what Saint Paul is saying to the Corinthians, God is saying to you and to me.

Saint Paul begins by saying that his fellow-apostle Sosthenes and he send greetings to the Corinthians, “to you who have been consecrated in Christ Jesus and called to be a holy people.” He goes on, “and to all those who, wherever they may be, call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” He continues, “I continually thank my God for you because of the favor he has bestowed on you in Christ Jesus … You have been richly endowed with every gift of speech and knowledge …You lack no spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful and it was he who called you to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

You have been richly endowed. You lack no spiritual gift. How true these statements are about all those who have faith in our Divine Lord and attempt to live in union with him! What a joy to be members of his people, recipients of his grace, his love, his peace, and his promise that we will be with him forever. One of the nicest things that Jesus says in the gospel occurs just before his sufferings and death. He told his disciples, and us, “I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am, you also may be.”

So, let us be grateful and happy that we have been so richly endowed; that we lack no spiritual gift. And that Our Divine Lord is in heaven, preparing a place for us. Let us try not to fear death. There is a natural fear of disintegration, but let us try to rise above that fear into the realm of supernatural confidence, trust, and the “joyful hope” that we speak of at Mass. Jesus, who is with us every day, but concealed in his word and his Eucharist, awaits us at the end of our brief journey through this world, and he awaits us in all his glory and divine beauty. Thank you for seeking God’s truth. God bless you. Father Victor Brown, O.P.

Note:  Father Brown composed this message some years ago.  Please pray for the souls of the faithful departed, including Father Brown, who was born into eternal life seven years ago on January 9, 2017.