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Since the Solemnity of All Saints (All Hallows) falls on a Sunday this year, it takes the place of the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. As such, our sequential reading of 1 Thessalonians is interrupted with this week’s interlude in 1 John.

Last week, we heard Saint Paul gushing over the Thessalonians and reminding them of his relentless prayer on their behalf. This week, he continues his thoughts by pointing out that the Thessalonians received the word in great affliction with joy and became models for all the believers. If they are to be models for us as believers, what specifically does Saint Paul hold up as exemplary?

Today begins a five-week cycle in which our second readings will come from Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. He probably wrote this letter around 51 A.D. during his stay in Corinth, which would make this possibly the oldest writing in the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians is a warmly-written letter filled with praise, advice, and comfort in which Saint Paul fondly recalls his time in Thessalonica, which was the wealthy seaport capital of Macedonia. The letter ends with some instructions about Jesus' return, which makes it ideal reading for these waning weeks of the liturgical year that build up to the Solemnity of Christ the King.

Do you want to know a secret? I do not mean seven secrets to weight loss, or five secrets of the ultra-rich, but a real and true secret of eternal value? Because that is exactly what Saint Paul offers us in this, our final second reading from his Letter to the Philippians.

We just began reading Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians two weeks ago, and we are already nearing the end. To be fair, we skipped over most of chapter two and all of chapter three. It would be well worth your time to go back and read this entire letter; it might take you twenty minutes.

Our second reading this week includes Saint Paul’s famous Christ Hymn, which very well may have been an existent early Christian hymn. Whether he borrowed it or wrote it himself, this hymn certainly speaks to the poetic beauty and catechetical power of good hymns. They can help us grasp deeper truths about the Lord and about life and give us memorable phrasing to ponder. Consider praying over the lyrics to the hymns from this week’s Mass.

This week, we begin a four-week reading of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. The four chapters of this short book represent one of Saint Paul’s warmest letters because it is primarily a letter of encouragement and thanks rather than a letter of correction. He probably wrote it in the early 60’s A.D. from prison in Rome (Acts 28:16, 30). Philippi was the leading city of Macedonia (Northern Greece), and was inhabited mostly by retired veterans of the Roman army and only a small Jewish community. The Church in Philippi was the first church established in continental Europe.

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the longest epistle in the New Testament and one of the most theologically important and illuminating documents in the entire Bible. Our second readings have been occupied with this book for several months, and this week’s reading is the final section we will read during Mass, though the letter itself goes on for another two and a half chapters.

Last week, we read Saint Paul’s introduction to the final section of Romans, his moral catechesis. This week, he digs into the foundational principal of the moral life: love. In the wider context of Romans 13, he uses the analogy of debts, of things owed to another. He says that we owe respectful obedience to civil authorities—unless they demand that we do something immoral—and we also owe them taxes.

This week’s second reading comes from the final section of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, encompassing chapters 12-15. In this moral catechesis, he addresses life in the Church, responsibility toward civil governments, and avoiding scandal. In the two verse of this reading, he urges us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice which he says is holy and acceptable to God. What is the Holy Spirit saying by this?

In this week’s second reading, Saint Paul concludes his three-chapter exploration of how the Jewish people could reject Jesus as Messiah and yet remain God’s Chosen People. He ends this intricately woven section of Old Testament quotations and illusions with a doxology, a hymn of effusive praise to God.

Last week, we read from the beginning of Saint Paul’s three-chapter grappling with how the Jewish people could reject Jesus as the promised Messiah. Recall that in this section of Romans, he keeps searching the scriptures to better understand the mind of God on this question. This week, our second reading comes from the end of this section.

Our second reading this week continues St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. The Church gives us just the first five verses of a prolonged and dense argument in which Saint Paul wrestles with the Jewish people’s simultaneous election as God’s people and seemingly widespread rejection of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises. Responding to only part of God's revelation has never ended well in the Old Testament (see the major prophets and the Babylonian Exile). The New Testament is also clear that the Jewish people still hold a special place in God's plan of salvation. You can see the struggle here, right?

The Holy Spirit, in the voice of Saint Paul, asks us a blunt question: “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35). What follows might as well read, “Will pandemic, or unemployment, or spending your savings, or virtual schooling, or facemasks, or elections, or protests, or global warming, or zombie fires, or murder hornets? To this, Saint Paul says, “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). There is no social distancing form the love of God!

What an appropriate second reading for a time like this! “We know that all things work for good for those who love God.” A more accurate translation of this line says that “God works all things for good” or “in everything God works for good.” Did you hear that? Everything, every single thing, without qualification.

This week’s second reading is short, only two verses, but it reveals something deep in the heart of God. The Lord is an intercessor, and when God intercedes, it’s an emotional affair.

I believe in the resurrection of the body. We say it every Sunday in the Creed. Have you ever stopped to consider the jarring meaning of this creedal statement? In this week’s second reading from Romans, the Holy Spirit invites us to ponder this great mystery and source of hope.

If you’ve been baptized, you’ve already died mystically. That was Saint Paul’s message in last week’s second reading. This week he begins by reminding us of the same truth but with slightly different language: you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit. In the spiritual death of baptism, the Holy Spirit began to live inside of us.

In last week’s second reading, Saint Paul highlighted some of the parallels between Adam and Jesus. Adam’s free choice affected all of us negatively, and Jesus’ free choice can affect all of us positively forever. In this weeks’ second reading, Saint Paul brings up another parallel. Adam’s sin brought death into the world, but Jesus’ redemption brings about new life through a mystical participation in his death. That happens in baptism.

The past three weeks in the Mass theme have been intense: Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi. This week we return to normal Ordinary Time, the twelfth week of it. This week begins a stretch of second readings from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans that will continue into September, but we pick it up in the fifth chapter of the letter. So let’s review this letter as a whole and the argument being made in the parts that come before our reading this week.