Homily for 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Sept. 29, 2019

1 Tim 6: 11-16
St. Pius X, Scarsdale, N.Y.
St. Anthony, Bronx, N.Y.                                                                   

“But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith” (1 Tim 6: 11-12).

Orthodox icon of St. Timothy (public domain via Wikipedia)

Paul continues to address his beloved disciple and co-worker Timothy.  At the same time, he’s addressing all of us.  When he addresses Timothy as a “man of God,” he’s using the Greek anthropos, the generic term for a human being.  In the Bible, the term “man of God” very often refers to one with a special calling and mission from God, which Timothy has as an apostle collaborating with Paul and taking his place as leader of the Church at Ephesus.

But every one of us has a calling and mission from God.  Every one of us is a man or woman of God, called to pursue “righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness,” called to “compete for the faith,” that is, to engage in competition against the powers of evil in this world, to fight Satan and his earthly allies so as to live faithfully “the noble confession” that we “made in the presence of many witnesses” (6:12).

In the ancient Church, that “noble confession” was made when an adult Christian was baptized in the presence of the rest of the community.  Most of us were baptized as infants, probably in a relatively private rite.  But we do publicly confess our faith, that is, proclaim it, every Sunday when we recite the Creed and when we celebrate the Eucharist.  We renew it annually at Easter.  Thru these actions, lived out faithfully, we “lay hold of eternal life” (6:12), for they connect us to our risen Lord Jesus.

Jesus, too, Paul says, made his own “noble confession,” “giving testimony under Pontius Pilate” (6:13).  He told Pilate, according to John’s Gospel, that he came into the world to bear witness to the truth, and everyone who is of the truth hears his voice (18:37).  He was put on trial by the Jewish leaders for claiming to be the Messiah, God’s Son, and this he did not deny, but affirmed.

All that is our affirmation, too, that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the Savior of the world, the one who reveals God’s truth to us.  Paul charges Timothy, and us, “to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14), i.e., to keep all that Jesus taught us about our relationship with his heavenly Father, about what is true and good, about what is demanded of us morally—e.g., in today’s gospel (Luke 16:19-31) about our moral obligation to care for the poor, the sick, the needy, the distressed; and unless we do so, we will not enjoy eternal life but will suffer damnation.

The Gospel of Jesus is not all sweetness and light!  It’s very demanding, as Jesus’ own suffering and death demonstrate.  He saves us thru the cross, which leads to resurrection.  He saves us thru “righteousness,” i.e., living in a right relationship with God, one based on truth, the practice of love, patience, and gentleness, thru faithful battle against the temptation to seek power or fame, to pursue pleasure for its own sake, to cling to money (last week we were reminded that we can’t serve both God and money [Luke 16:13]).

The gospels and the rest of the New Testament teach us the truths that Jesus wants us to live by, e.g., mercy, forgiveness, chastity, and humility; teach us how to “compete well for the faith.”  The successors of Paul, Timothy, and the other apostles spell out details for us in our own times as we continue to await “the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  E.g., the Church reminds us repeatedly of the dignity of every human being, from conception in a mother’s womb until natural death; hence the utter immorality of abortion, euthanasia or “mercy killing,” or any other form of murder, and the general wrongness of capital punishment and of war.  E.g., the respect that’s due to every person regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, religious belief, or sexual orientation.  Such respect isn’t the same as approval of everything that a person might do, for the Church also teaches us and, citing the words of Jesus in the gospels, has always taught, that God has a design and purpose for our sexuality; he created us “male and female,” which are givens from the Creator and not something emanating from our own minds, and for the exercise of our sexuality for the inseparable purposes of both totally committed, self-giving love and of procreation.

Paul concludes his exhortation to Timothy by reminding him that at God’s own “proper time,” our Lord Jesus will appear again; that God is “the blessed and only ruler” of humanity, “the King of kings and Lord of lords” (6:14-15)—statements that directly challenged the claims of the Roman emperors and in the past have challenged other dictators, like Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, and today confront the Communist rulers of China and North Korea and the dictators in Nicaragua and Venezuela.  These are statements that Americans, as well, need to remember when we set our state and national policies.

Paul continues his thought:  God alone has immortality, altho in his kindness thru his Son he shares with us his eternal life; and to God alone do we owe honor and eternal power or sovereignty—not to any emperor, king, president, or political party.  God has created us to give him glory, and he happily shares that glory with those who, with Jesus Christ, “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness”; who, like Jesus Christ, persevere in their noble confession of the faith, who “keep the commandment without stain or reproach” until our Lord Jesus returns.