In the first reading St. Paul is warning against some of the Thessalonian Christians who were not pulling their weight in society. They believed, or at least affected to believe, that because of their baptisms the Day of the Lord had come and that they didn't need not work anymore because the world was as good as it was going to be. Paul did not agree. He was not convinced that the world was in its final stages. It needed to be developed and perfected. That required the combined work of all.

In the Gospel Jesus, normally so restrained and encouraging in his comments, is in this case fiercely critical of the Pharisees. In practice they had withdrawn from a productive cooperation with others. This withdrawal stemmed from a narrow and rigid emphasis on perfect observance of the minutiae of religious law. This led to a paralysis of normal life and to a feeling of pride and self satisfaction which made it unlikely that they could ever work with lesser human beings.

Today is the feast of St. Monica. We do not know a lot about her but we do know that she was a married woman and that she had three children. She was proud of her son, Augustine's gifts. She travelled with him. She struggled to bring him back to his Christian faith from which he had temporarily strayed.