24th Week, Thursday, Sept 16
1 Tim 4:12-16 / Luke 7:36-50
Paul exhorts Timothy; Be an example of faith and love.
Dr. Lloyd Judd was the first to diagnose his own illness as cancer. Before he died, he made a series of tapes to be played by his two small children when they were old enough to appreciate them. A passage from one of the tapes reads: “Are you willing to get out of a warm bed in the middle of the night when you desperately need rest, drive 20 miles—knowing you will not be paid to see someone you know can wait until morning? ... If you can answer yes to this, I feel you are qualified to start the study of medicine.” Paul holds out a similar challenge to Timothy, his spiritual son. It comes down to this: Be an example of faith and love to everyone you meet.
***
What kind of example of faith and love are we to those
around us? “An ounce of practice is
worth a pound of preaching.” John Ray
***
In antiquity, maturity was supposed to come not earlier than
the age of fifty. Timothy must have been about thirty only when Paul wrote his
first letter to him. Paul advises him to develop the charisma he had received
at his ordination, through the imposition of hands.
***
Paul was very fond of Timothy. He was his great favourite.
On his first missionary journey he and Barnabas came to Lystra, where he
preached the gospel and was stoned. They left him as dead and when he woke up,
he found himself in the tender care of two women. There stood a boy who wept
over him (2 Timothy 1,5). The family was converted. The two women were Eunice,
the mother of Timothy and Lois, the boy’s grandmother. Paul remembered that he
too had as the occasion of his conversion a stoning, that of Stephen. He loved
the boy. The year was 46 A.D. On his second missionary journey, it was the year
50 A.D, he came a second time to Lystra, where he met Timothy again. His
intelligence and religious sincerity gave a sparkle to his eyes. Both nature
and grace made him a lovable person. He knew the Scriptures by heart. He could
read and write not only Hebrew but, with equal fluency, Greek. He had learned
his Scripture at home. From such good families come the vocations to
priesthood. In those days, the New Testament had not yet been written and
Theology just began. Timothy did not have to study years. Paul prepared him for
priestly induction. He was his companion from now on, on his missionary
journeys, after which Paul made him bishop of Ephesus. In 66 A.D., Paul writes
this letter. Timothy was in his thirties, a very young man for a bishop.
"Do not let people disregard you because you are young”. This seems to
have been then as it is now. For some, the favourite topic of conversation ts
to grumble about the youth of the day. The advice of Paul is: Speak and behave
in such a way that people can see your warm affection, your loyalty and purity.
Three lovely qualities of the young.
***
There are many things that money can buy, but there are also many things that money cannot buy. One thing for certain is that money cannot buy mercy. Mercy can only be given, it cannot be bought or demanded. But as much as there is no connection between money and mercy, Jesus often used the example of money to teach about God's mercy, love, generosity, forgiveness, etc.
In today's gospel, Jesus used a simple example that involved money to teach the Pharisee a simple truth. A creditor had two men in his debt: one owed him 500 denarii, the other 50. Both of them were unable to pay, and he pardoned them both.
Obviously, the one who was pardoned more will be more
grateful and will love the creditor more than the other. Using that example,
Jesus declared that the woman's many sins must have been forgiven her and that
was why she showed such great love.
So, it comes down to simply this: how much we love is much
we have been forgiven. But more than that we must keep loving more and more. As
St. Paul tells Timothy in the 1st reading: in this way, you will save both
yourself and others as well.
***
A woman with a bad reputation, which she apparently
deserved, comes to Jesus and shows in a rather extravagant way that something
in her cries out for a purer kind of love than she had experienced in life. Her
encounter with Jesus in faith and love led to forgiveness, to the scandal of
the good practicing people. For us too, Jesus’ encounter with us is always
forgiving.
***
Prayer
Patient and loving Father, you sent Jesus your Son among us
to heal what is broken and wounded. He touched us with his goodness and did not
break the crushed reed. Forgive us our
sins, let your Spirit continue in us the work of conversion and make us patient
and understanding with those who love us and those who fail us. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Amen
