Pastor Juan Sosa recently wrote to his congregation at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach regarding the hope and succor offered by God to the faithful.

Reflecting on the reading from Isaiah, Sosa wrote first of the work God accomplished through the Persian emperor, Cyrus, who God used to free the Israelites and restore Jerusalem.

“The prophet insists that God is the one true God, in the midst of nations that worshiped many gods,” Sosa said in the church's Oct. 18 bulletin.

Then, in the reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the faithful are reminded that their true strength will always come from God.

The Gospel reading also teaches the faithful how to react to the world, Sosa noted. 

“In the Gospel, Jesus does not limit his words to recognizing the entrapment of the Pharisees; he also confronts their hypocrisy,” Pastor Sosa said in the bulletin. “By so doing, he unveils the wisdom that God grants to those who respect human life at all stages and are willing to face the reality that they experience in the world, even if it is not the one they would envision as ideal.”