Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, bishops
“As I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois… I am confident lives also in you.” - 2 Timothy 1:5
Skimming would dramatically overstate the amount of attention that I usually pay to the beginnings of the epistles. Today as the Church remembers Timothy and Titus the options for the first reading both come from those portions of those letters. The portions filled with names and references that strike us, thousands of years later, as obscure.
However these greeting paragraphs, help make these early Christian communities feel closer to us. These paragraphs help them feel less like they are thousands of miles and thousands of years removed from our lives. These communities on Crete and in Ephesus which Titus and Timothy were the leaders of were filled with people as real as you and me. These women and men who grappled with the same mysteries of faith that we grapple with, who proceed us in discipleship, who shaped the Church which we are entrusted with today.
In a Bible trivia game, knowing the name of Timothy’s grandma would most certainly be worth lots points. But as I reflected on the readings today, the pairing of greetings from epistiles with the Parable of the Mustard Seed, this figure, Grandma Lois, stood out to me. The faith of Grandma Lois, made me think about my own grandmothers. I thought about how some of the few times they were both in the same place were at my Baptism and my First Communion. I also thought about my grandpa who is my Confirmation sponsor. None of my grandparents ever made grand speeches about the faith to me. However their presence at these faith milestones, and throughout my childhood, are some of the seeds of faith that were planted in me.
Scripture does not provide us the details on how Grandma Lois instilled the faith in Timothy. It does tell us however that she was sincere in her faith. Talking about actions speaking louder than words is cliche, but when I think about the moments inspired me to grow my faith as a child, they really are the actions of others and many of them are small. They are things like being told that my great-grandma had a tradition of praying a Hail Mary whenever she heard a siren, something I decided to continue, and hope to one day teach my children and grandchildren to do.
The parable of the Mustard Seed shows us that Kingdom of God may not come about here on earth through grand gestures and actions. But the Kingdom of God is something that comes about when even the smallest acts of faith are allowed to grow and blossom to the fullest. We are disciples like those in the early Church in Ephesus and on Crete, just as they planted seeds that we have seen grow into the Church we know today, we too plant seeds that future generations see grow into the Church they will know.
Lord God, we come to you in thanksgiving for our ancestors, especially our grandmothers. We come to you thankful for those whose simple actions passed the faith along to us. We humbly ask that you guide us to take simple, mustard seed actions, to continue passing on the faith to future generations.
Saint Titus, Saint Timothy and Grandma Lois: pray for us!
-Will Marsh