Suffering - Badge of Honor

Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Second Letter to Timothy, a passage of which we read today, begins with a very personal greeting: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus …, to Timothy, my dear child: …” That personal greeting is corroborated by the fact that the author of this letter also identifies himself as the person who ordained Timothy through the imposition of his hands and who installed him as the pastor of the Christian community of Ephesus.

I emphasized this point at the beginning of my homily today because the letter seems to raise a very painful subject; namely, the fact that Timothy seems to have cooled in his zeal for the Gospel. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to “stir into flame the gift of God.” He goes on to bring up the issue of cowardice and shame. As I have mentioned before, the avoidance of shame and the quest for honor are the dual engines that drive Middle Eastern culture. Consequently, Timothy’s timidity, cooled ardor, and feelings of shame are significant shortcomings in this honor driven culture. The notion of shame is further accentuated by the fact that Paul addresses Timothy as “my dear child.” It would be unthinkable for a child to dishonor his father by being ashamed of him. The call to Timothy is, therefore, a call back to honorable behavior.

Why would Timothy be ashamed of Paul? Paul answers this question for us by telling us that he is a prisoner for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Ordinarily, in the Middle Eastern culture, this would be considered a reason to feel shame. However, St. Paul maintains that his imprisonment is not a cause for shame but a badge of honor worthy of being imitated by Timothy. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to bear his share of hardship for the Gospel with strength that comes through the grace of God.

The context of shame and dishonor also appears in the Gospel for this Sunday. This passage from the Gospel of St. Luke begins with the apostles asking Jesus to “increase” their faith. Something has happened that evokes this request. Immediately preceding this passage, Jesus tells his disciples: “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, “I am sorry,” you should forgive him. Upon hearing this, the apostles say to Jesus, “increase our faith.” To be sure, forgiving someone seven times in a day takes a great deal of faith or loyalty and courage. Most people would say that such generosity in forgiveness is foolhardy and is simply asking to be abused. The response that the apostles give Jesus upon hearing his demand reveals that they, like us, would find it impossible to be so forgiving. Yet, if we are honest about it, this is exactly what we expect of God when it comes to our sins. Indeed, this is perhaps one of the main stumbling blocks in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are those who maintain that if this is what God expects of us, they simply cannot put their faith in such a God.

For Timothy, and therefore, for all successors to the ministry of the apostles, this kind of loyalty is possible only with the strength that comes from God. This kind of loyalty to the faith is that which led to the martyrdom of so many in the early years of the church. So, while this letter is addressed to Timothy, it is obvious that St. Paul is speaking to all of us as well. No matter what our position in the church, no matter how we serve the community, no matter our race, gender, or ethnic background, we are called to stir into flame the gift of faith that we have received from God. We are all members of the Body of Christ and are expected to live out our commitment to the faith we have received and in which we have all been baptized. It is not enough to simply sit back and ruminate about the lack of faith in our society and culture. We must live out our faith even if it means that we will suffer for it. Our ancestors in the faith stand as witnesses to what can be accomplished by those who live out their faith.