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Letters Twenty-Seventh
Sunday in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
October 5, 2001This Sunday begins a series of four readings from The Second Letter to Timothy. II Timothy, like the other two pastoral letters (I Timothy and Titus), is concerned with problems that began to face Church leaders at a time later than that of, say, the letters to the Corinthians or the Galatians. We saw a few weeks ago that scholars do not believe that the pastoral letters are the immediate work of Paul, but represent the work of unknown writers trying to extend Paul’s teaching and mind-set into a new church context.
The relationship in time, authorship, and content between II Timothy and the other two pastoral epistles is not clear. Yet scholars seem to think that II Timothy may be earlier than I Timothy and Titus, and might even have a closer link to the historical Paul than the other two. In any case, this letter offers us a warm and eloquent appeal from a senior apostle to a junior one in a time of uncertainty and change.
The first two Sundays’ readings from II Timothy are from chapters one and two, in which the author is exhorting Timothy to carry forward the faithfulness in the service of God’s people that has characterized the apostles’ work until now.
He begins our reading by reminding Timothy of the gift that he had been given by the imposition of hands. (The imposition of hands was a gesture that was meant to express the communication of spiritual gifts and powers. It is still used in conferring the sacrament of Holy Orders. Cf. Acts 6.6 and 8.17.) This spiritual gift should be a source of courage, energy, and direction for him. It should strengthen him to sustain the demands of preaching the gospel without shrinking from the public dishonor that sometimes accompanied it. (The author speaks as one imprisoned for his preaching.)
The text then goes on to speak of the need for consistency and coherence with the teaching that had been presented in Christ’s name from the beginning. The faith and love that believers receive from Christ Jesus constitutes a precious deposit that we must carefully preserve with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Preserving what has been entrusted to us, i.e., safeguarding the deposit of faith, is a recurrent theme in I and II Timothy. One could almost say that this concern is one of the primary subjects of these two letters. No less than five times (I Tim. 1.18 and 6.20; II Tim. 1.12, 1.14, 2.2)we hear of what has been entrusted, or what is to be entrusted, or something precious that is to be looked after. This concern to protect and hand on what we have received is understandable at a time when the original apostles, those who had seen Jesus, were passing away and leaving their task of faithful proclamation to a succeeding generation.
Concern about safeguarding the deposit of faith is part of the Church’s life today. After all, the teaching that we have received from our elders in the community is not a man-made product to be changed or modified in accord with changing contemporary needs and desires. It is the teaching of Christ Himself, Christ’s account of God’s love for us, expressed in His words and His actions, a teaching whose acceptance on our part is what constitutes salvation.
This is why the Church is necessarily involved with a tradition, the tradition of Jesus and His first followers. In such a context, tradition does not mean customary religious practices like praying the rosary or abstaining from meat on Friday. Nor does it mean a body of abstract teachings that we are expected to sign onto and pass on to future generations, as if it were a sort of theological diskette that contains all the answers. Obviously customary religious practices can be useful in expressing our faith, but they depend for their worth on the authenticity of the faith they express. Likewise, exact doctrine is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the "deposit" of tradition, but it is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Tradition, in its fullest sense, is more than all this.
The tradition that the Church strives to preserve and defend comprises everything that contributes to our life of faith, everything that constitutes and advances the holiness of Christian life. It is expressed in the teaching, the life, and the worship of the Church. It is perpetuated and handed on to all generations by what the Church is and what the Church believes. One might also say that the tradition that lies at the heart of the Church is nothing less than God’s self-gift to us in the person of Jesus Christ, an offer that the Church has the responsibility both to safeguard and to extend.
Every member of the Church shares responsibility for the tradition. We are all called to reply to the invitation that is inherent in it. We are all called to defend its purity. We are all called to proclaim and propagate it. The words of today’s reading are not a historical curiosity, relevant to a long gone period of Church history. They are a call to faith and dedication directed to believers of today.
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Conversation Questions
How do I stay in touch with the Church’s tradition?
What is my role in handing on the Christian tradition?
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