Tuesday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 26, 2021

The Feast of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus

Mark 4:21-25

Jesus said to his disciples, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lamp-stand? For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light. Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.” He also told them, “Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

St. Timothy, a First Century native of Asia Minor, was born of a gentile father and a Jewish woman named Eunice who became a Christian, herself the daughter of a Christian woman named Lois, both of whom Paul commends for their faith.  He became one of St. Paul’s most steadfast companions and accompanied him on several missions.  Paul appointed him the first bishop of the church at Ephesus, and addressed two very personal Letters to him which are included in the New Testament. They are filled with sound, practical advice for church order.  Tradition hands down that Timothy was stoned to death by the pagans of Ephesus when he was an old man.  Formerly he had his own feast day, January 24.  St. Titus was born in Antioch, Syria, of gentile parents and was converted as a young man by the preaching of St. Paul.  He became another of Paul’s most trusted companions.  Paul’s trust in him is shown in that he appointed him bishop of the church on the island of Crete.  He may have died there, but no record of this has come down to us.  St. Paul’s Letter to Titus also adorns the Holy Scriptures.  Formerly he also had his own feast day, on February 6, until the reform of the Roman calendar in 1969.

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, the Lord teaches on the subject of faith.  Faith, he tells us, is not some private belief that is to be kept locked up or disguised.  He uses a lamp as a figure for faith, but in the way he talks about it, it seems to be a living thing announcing its presence: “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lamp-stand?”  As though to say that the lamp will not tolerate being hidden under a bushel basket or stuck under a bed.  If the lamp is lit, hiding it in such places will only result in a fire, anyway.  Its light will shine forth one way or another.  In the same way, we believers are lamps and the flame is our faith, or, the faith committed to us.  The fuel we contain for the flame is the grace of God.  The purpose of the lamp is to provide the basis for light, and the purpose of the light is not to illumine the lamp so that people can admire it but to throw back the darkness all around as though it were a heavy curtain, so that reality may be seen.  That reality is God and his love for us.  To cover up the lamp and its light in order to continue walking in the darkness is madness.  “For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.”  God does not hide himself from us, though we sometimes try to hide him from ourselves by covering our eyes with our hands or by distracting ourselves by gazing into the darkness beyond the reach of the lamp’s light.  He wants us to see his glory: we were made to see his glory.  Only those who resolutely flee from his glory never see it.  And many do so, preferring their own imagined glory to that of Almighty God: “I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14, 14). 

“The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you.”  The Lord teaches us here that the greater our belief, the more enduring our perseverance in our faith during tribulation, the greater the reward he shall give us in heaven: “To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of my God” (Revelation 2, 7).  We should also know that since the “measure” of our faith is a lit lamp: the greater the measure, the brighter the lamp, and so the more unbelievers our faith shall bring to the glory of the Lord.  And, “to the one who has, more will be given”, that is, the Lord will provide more grace to us whose flame already burns furiously, but “from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”  This warning takes another form in Revelation 2:5: “Be mindful therefore from whence you are fallen: and do penance, and do the first works [of your faith]. Or else I come to you and will move your candlestick out of its place, except you do penance.”  A person may burn brightly at first, but then he stops praying, fasting, and doing good works.  He may even stop worshipping God at Holy Mass.  He is like the seed scattered on stony ground, which signifies the person who “hears the word [of the Gospel], and immediately receives it with joy.  Yet it has no root in him, but is only for a time: and when there arises tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized.”  Or the seed that is scattered among thorns, signifying the person who “hears the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches chokes up the word, and he becomes fruitless” (Matthew 13, 20-22).