The Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, Wednesday, January 26, 2022

The x-ray confirms the pneumonia, and I talked to the doctor about stronger medications because the alternative is going to the hospital.  She kept saying things like “Well, at your age,” which I did not understand and chalked it up to obscure medical terminology.  Again, thanks for your prayers, everybody!  I will be all right soon.

I originally and mistakingly posted a reflection on the Gospel reading for Thursday.  The following is for the correct reading.

Mark 4, 1-20

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,  and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.  Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it  and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”  He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables. He answered them, “The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”  Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no roots; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

Saints Timothy and Titus came from the Greek world: Timothy from Asia Minor (a Gentile father and Jewish mother who later converted to Christianity); and Titus from Crete, a man educated in the Greek culture and converted by St. Paul.  They followed Paul beginning as young men and from the benefit of grace and Paul’s example they became like sons to Paul, powerful in the faith and well-spoken.  Both received Letters from Paul, which they preserved and which have become parts of the New Testament.  As Paul expanded his missionary work, he found it expedient to place Timothy as overseer (“bishop”) of the Christians in Ephesus, and Titus over those in his native island of Crete.  From the richness of Paul’s theological language in his letters to them, we can gauge their intelligence, commitment to spreading the faith, and their sanctity.  Of course, we also see St. Paul’s great love for them and, in their careful preservation and sharing of his Letters, their love and respect for him.  On our own, we can try to imagine the magnitude of their first excitement upon hearing about and believing in the Lord Jesus.  It caused them to uproot their lives, defy the expectations for them of their parents, families, and friends, to plunge into the mysteries of an entirely new way of thinking and living and, indeed, to fall in deepest love with someone they had not met except in prayer.

In the parable used for the Gospel reading for this feast, the Lord explains to his Apostles — those first followers to experience this rousing, uprooting excitement — the reasons why others would hear what they heard and see what they saw and yet not be moved by Jesus as they were.  We might think of the perplexity of the Apostles and those early believers like Timothy and Titus as part of an audience as a concert.  We, and others around us might be brought to our feet, clapping ecstatically following the flawless performance of some great work, and yet there are also others sitting and applauding with less enthusiasm or even already making their way for the exits.  We eventually go home and recall these others as we think about our own enjoyment.  Did they not hear what we heard?  Was there something wrong with the performance that we did not catch?  Were they suffering from some physical trouble?  Were they suffering from some family trouble?  Did they just not like, or want to like, great music?  If we are not careful, getting hung up on the unhappy reactions of those others can dampen our own appreciation of the performance.  We may even come to doubt our own ability to know what is good.

This parable is the only one of all that Jesus told that the three Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all report on (John does not give us any of the Lord’s parables).  They each saw the importance and necessity for those who believed to see that Jesus knew how it would be.  His parable is one of consolation and of encouragement to those who believed and wondered why the world did not boil with the excitement for him with which they boiled.  He gives plain explanations for this: the others have so sunken their lives in sin that the hearing of the Gospel repels them; some are very interested but run from the Gospel because they love their present life and it’s comforts too much than to risk them in tribulation and persecution; and there are some whose gods are their vices and prefer the praise of their fellow humans than of God.  At the end of the parable, the Lord reminds those who do believe in him of the great results their faith will have: they will bear “fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”  That is, they will have great joy in their service of God.  

The service rendered to God nearly two thousand years ago by Saints Timothy and Titus continues to bear fruit today and is a marvelous reminder to us of what our service, done for the love of Jesus, will also produce in the future, long after we have joined these men in heaven.