Homily: Saints Timothy and Titus - "The Church exists to evangelize"

Following the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul yesterday, today we commemorate two of Paul’s close co-workers in the vineyard of the Lord: Timothy and Titus.  Today’s two saints give us a glimpse of life in the early church: zeal for the apostolate, devotion to Jesus, and the deep bonds of friendship that sustained them.

Timothy was Paul’s dearest disciple.  St Paul calls him, his beloved child, devoted to him “like a son to his father.”  Timothy was the son of a jewish mother and a pagan father, and Paul was directly instrumental in Timothy’s conversion from paganism.  When Paul visited the city of Lystra, Timothy, about twenty years old, joined him.  He assisted Paul in the establishment of the major Christian communities and he was with Paul during his first Roman imprisonment, and Timothy himself was imprisoned for spreading his work for the Gospel. 

 Titus was also a close friend and disciple of Paul, and accompanied Paul in his missionary activity.  He was with Paul at the Council of Jerusalem, and when Paul was having trouble with the community at Corinth because of community division, erroneous faith and rampant immorality, Paul sent Titus bearing his letter to the Corinthians, and Titus embraced them with the love of the true pastor’s heart.  This was probably one reason, why Paul felt so assured at naming Titus bishop of Crete, which was also riddled with error.

Pope Paul VI once said, “The Church exists to evangelize.”  Faithful to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see in the early Church these great figures of apostolic zeal, overcoming tremendous obstacles, both challenges from outside of the Church and challenges from within.  Likewise we are called to utilize the gifts of the Spirit given to us, not to stagnate in self-containment and self-concern, but to go out, and spread Christ’s Gospel in this generation, with all of its challenges and obstacles.

We saw hundreds of thousands of good people yesterday, enduring the cold, traveling—some of them, thousands of miles—to witness to the Gospel of Life.  Sometimes spreading the Gospel just means showing up and walking hand in hand with other Christians.  But it means doing something, intentionally that the Gospel of Christ takes root more deeply in a human heart or in a culture or in a family.  Doing something other than pretending that this call to evangelization is somebody else’s job. 

Through the example and prayer intercession of Saints Timothy and Titus may we be found faithful in service of the building up of the Church for the glory of God and salvation of souls.