Bible
Study: 2nd Timothy 1, 1 to 8. And Luke 10, 1 to 9.
The feast
of the conversion of St. Paul yesterday gives a background to our reflections
this week. From our readings yesterday, we saw that for God our past does not
matter. The moment we decide to turn around and have a change of heart, he sees
us as completely different persons.
Today the
same St. Paul who has now become a great apostle and mentor is writing to
Timothy who was like a son to him. He says to Timothy “Fan into flames the
spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given
us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
Repentance
is not about turning from your old ways, it is being able to tell yourself you
are a light and a salt to the earth. Repentance requires that you believe in
yourself, that you no longer see yourself as good-for-nothing. Repentance is
focusing on your goodness and your spiritual gifts and by focusing on your
bright sides, you fan them into flames, that is, you develop and increase your
spiritual capacities.
To be
living in sin is to like being possessed of a demon. One does things he or she
does not really want to do knowing fully well they are not right but finds it
difficult to avoid. The day a person repents, it is like being cured of a
demonic possession. Jesus gave a parable in Matthew 12, 43 to 45: “When an evil
spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.
Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and
finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven
other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live
there. And so that person is worse off than before.”
If after
repenting, you do not become possessed with goodness, if you do not fan into
flames your spirituality and fill your heart with godliness, if all you do is
to leave your heart empty and clean, there is a likelihood that you would
return again to your former sins.
In our
Gospel passage this morning, Jesus appoints seventy two persons and entrusted
to them the ministry of spreading the message. They are to carry no purse, no haversack,
no sandals. This means, they were to rely not on any material thing but on God
alone. Like Timothy and Titus, we too are called to be part of this mission by
constantly emptying ourselves of the love of worldly goods.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, give me the grace of total repentance and a deeper trust in you. Amen.
Saints
Timothy and Titus, pray for us.
God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is
well with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment