Today’s first reading begins: “We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us.” (1 Thess 3:6).

I have to admit I was surprised with the word “shun.” My first thought was from some movie from long ago when an early American faith community formally “shunned” one of its members for some transgression. Everyone in the church turned their backs to the person, marking the point in time when that person ceased to exist in the life of the community. It was a harsh moment.

In English the word “shun” comes from the Middle English shonen (or shunnen) which itself is derived from the Old English scunian, a word that means ‘abhor, shrink back with fear, seek safety from an enemy.’  By Middle English the meaning had softened a bit to mean, “keep out of the way of, avoid (a person or place); refrain from, neglect (a practice or behavior).”  In the text of Thessalonians, St. Paul uses the word stellomai, to avoid or withdraw from. I think I would have rather the translators of the New American Bible opted for “avoid any brother…” as I think the common American use of the word is more akin to the Old English scunian.

There is some wisdom to St. Paul’s advice to avoid the people so described. Sancho Panza reminds Don Quixote, “A qui encaxa bien el refran, dixo Sancho, de dime, con quien andas, dezirte he quien eres.”  Often translated as “Show me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” Similar to a translation of the Greek tragedian Euripides “Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.”  For the early Christian community (as now!), we too are called to shine the light of our life in Christ before others.

I wonder what St. Paul would have thought of Garth Brook’s hit “Friends in Low Places” … “where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases.”