REPENTANCE: FANNING YOUR GOODNESS INTO FLAMES. (Homily for January 26, 2016. Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus.)


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.

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