January 26, 2013

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Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, bishops

Read more about Sts. Timothy and Titus.

Lectionary: 520/316

Reading 1 from St. Paul's second letter to St. Timothy
2 Tm 1:1-8

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
for the promise of life in Christ Jesus,
to Timothy, my dear child:

St. Paul addresses St. Timothy very tenderly, as a father would his son.

grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord.

And bestows upon him the blessing of God through Christ.

I am grateful to God,
whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did,

It is clear that St. Paul considers Christianity to be an extension of the Judaic faith.  Which it is.  It is often referred to as the fulfillment of the Mosaic Covenant.

as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.
I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears,
so that I may be filled with joy,
as I recall your sincere faith
that first lived in your grandmother Lois
and in your mother Eunice
and that I am confident lives also in you.

St. Paul knows the St. Timothy's family intimately.  And he knows who it is that has passed down the faith of Christ.  His mother and grandmother.

Which brings me to this point, which I believe all should recognize.  It is the women in my family who passed down the Faith.  It is they who were concerned that the children lead moral and upright lives.  For the most part, the men, though they were not absent, were recommending the opposite.  It is also lay women whom I see laboring in the pews and in the churches, more than men.

Therefore, I believe we owe a great debt to the women in our lives for guiding our children in the right path.

For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.

St. Paul urges St. Timothy to become inflamed with the Spirit of God, which is the gift he received, either in Confirmation or in Holy Orders.  Both of which include a ritual of laying of hands.  Since St. Timothy is a Bishop however, he probably means the laying on of hands of the presbytery, which is Holy Orders or the Priesthood.

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is not of fear.  But of power, love and self-control.

So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord,
nor of me, a prisoner for his sake;
but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel
with the strength that comes from God.

And he says, don't hold back, but testify to your faith in Jesus Christ.  And tell them also about me, how I am a prisoner of Christ, and accept the suffering that comes with speaking the truth with the perseverance that comes from God.

The altnernate is a reading from St. Paul's letter to St. Titus
Ti 1:1-5

There is a subtle difference in the greeting between St. Paul's letter to St. Timothy and that to St. Titus.  Whether this translates to a difference in their personal relationship, I don't know.  But to me, if the letters are any indication, his relationship with St. Timothy seems to have been more intimate.

Paul, a slave of God and Apostle of Jesus Christ

St. Paul is not making a distinction here.  He is being redundant.  He acknowledges that Jesus is God.   We know this because he says it explicitly in the next Chapter of his letter to St. Titus:


Titus 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

for the sake of the faith of God’s chosen ones

This can be taken two ways.
1.  For the sake of the Church.  The Church teaches and practices the Faith which God has revealed to His chosen ones.
2.  For the sake of those who believe in Christ.  That their faith may be strengthened and multiplied in order to assure their salvation.

and the recognition of religious truth,
in the hope of eternal life

This also can be taken in two ways.
1. For the sake of the spreading of the Gospel which is the good news of our salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
2.  For the sake of the recognition of the Church, which is the house of God, the pillar and foundation of the truth and which teaches the wisdom of God even in the heavens.

that God, who does not lie, promised before time began,

All that which he just mentioned is promised way back in Genesis 3:15, when God said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

who indeed at the proper time revealed his word
in the proclamation with which I was entrusted
by the command of God our savior,

The redundnancies and metaphors abound in these few sentences.  Here, "His Word" could be the Gospel or Jesus Christ the Word of God.

God our savior, is, of course, Jesus Christ.  But it could be taken as a reference to the Father.

to Titus, my true child in our common faith:
grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.

For those Protestants that say we should not call our Priests, "father", here is an example of the fact that back in the Apostolic period, the Apostles considered themselves spiritual fathers of their flocks.  This is why he calls St. Titus, his true child.

For this reason I left you in Crete
so that you might set right what remains to be done
and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you.

This part of the letter ends with his directive to St. Titus to appoint more priests in the towns of his Bishoprick or as we would call it today, "diocese".

Responsorial Psalm
ps 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 7-8a, 10

R. (3) Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.

R. Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.

R. Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!

R. Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He has made the world firm, not to be moved;
he governs the peoples with equity.

R. Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

In the New Testament, God's glory is Jesus Christ:

2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And it is this glory which we should proclaim to the world.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark
Mk 3:20-21

Jesus came with his disciples into the house.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Personally speaking, I think the relatives were trying to protect him from the crowds which were saying that He was out of his mind.  But that is not how it comes out in the translation.  It sounds as though some in his family were against Him.