Between the great Feast of Christmas and the Epiphany, Christmastide finds the Church reflecting upon the mission and identity of the Christ child.
Yesterday, on the Christmas Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, we reflected upon the meaning of his name. The name of Our Lord, “Jesus”, the name announced by the angel, means “God Saves”. Jesus is God and Savior. He is the God who saves.
On this ferial day, we read in our epistle, St. Paul reflecting upon the identity and mission of Christ. Paul writes to titus that the grace of God has appeared. Jesus, the Lord, is the grace of God made visible.
Mercy has a name, mercy has a face, mercy has a heart, as Pope Benedict XVI has said. And through Jesus, who is the love, mercy, and grace of God made visible, salvation is offered to all, Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus is truly God and savior.
St. Paul then goes on to explain how salvation involves us being trained to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly. In the face of God’s overwhelming goodness and mercy and grace made visible by Jesus, we are to respond by rejecting all that is godless. Aware of God’s love for us, we respond by engaging in training. Like an athlete or soldier trains, we are to train our minds, bodies, and souls to reject what is worldly and godless. And this might be difficult for a good many of us, for the worldly and godless is deeply ingrained in us. So great effort is to be exerted, suffering is to be endured, to be trained in grace.
But we willingly do so in order to live in a pleasing manner for the one born for us as savior.
St. Paul then mentions temperance, justice, and devotion, specifically. These three virtues regulate how we deal with the created things of the world, how we deal with other people, and how we relate to God. By temperance, we are to practice self-control in moderating our use of the goods of the earth. By justice, we regulate our relationships with others, treating people with the respect, patience, and generosity owed to them. And by devotion, or piety, we give to God what belongs to God—worship and obedience and prayer and faithfulness in our God-given mission to evangelize.
On the feast of Epiphany, we find Magi from the east, bringing gifts to the newborn King gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. This reading from St. Paul to Titus is a beautiful prelude to the Epiphany, hinting at the fact that the Lord desires more than these physical gifts, the one in whom grace has been made visible desires his grace to be made visible in us, that the gift of grace may fill our lives, transforming them, delivering them, purifying them, sanctifying them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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A reading from the epistle of St. Paul to Titus
Brethren: For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good. Say these things. Exhort and correct with all authority: in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. Luke
At that time, when eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
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