A blessed memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, co-workers of Saint Paul, both of them ordained by him into the early episcopacy of the Church, when every bishop was a ‘missionary’, sent forth into unknown, hostile, pagan territory, meaning an almost certain martyrdom. Paul’s two letters to Timothy and one to Titus are bracing for the soul, and an excellent focus for the mind. Their lives, and the words of the Apostle, provide the blueprint for what a bishop should be.
More of our current leadership – not just in the Church – should get out into the ‘real world’ more often – to see what is actually happening on the ground, in parishes and homes and schools, for the strange decisions they make imply a disconnection therefrom. In some, this may be deliberate, in others, unwitting, but all of us have to get out of our comfortable cocoons, which over time have an enervating effect on the soul. Go forth, and preach the Gospel to all creatures! And, with Saint Paul, woe to me if I do not…
As Paul urges the recently ordained bishop Timothy in his second letter:
I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.
Saints Timothy and Titus, orate pro Ecclesiae, ora pro nobis. +