Lay Hold of the Eternal Life, to Which You were Called"

Sunday's Mass Readings

In today's second reading (1 Tim 6:11-16), St. Paul to Timothy, where he writes, “But you, man of God pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness.” In other words, St. Paul is encouraging Timothy and his community to be a certain kind of people. St. Paul is urging them to strive at developing a Christian character. A person with Christian character is unlike the people in the time of the prophet Amos who, “…lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortable on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from the stall!” (Amos 6:4). In other words, these unrighteous people were consuming the lambs kept for offering sacrifice to God and they were insensitive to needs of the poor. A person with Christian character is also not like the rich man in today’s gospel reading, who “dined sumptuously each day” (Luke 16:19) and did not even think of giving the poor man at his gates the scraps from the table (Luke 1620-21).

What is a Christian supposed to look like? Well, a Christian strives for righteousness (righteousness means right relationship with God, with others, and with himself/herself), devotion (translated as fidelity to God, to our relationships), faith (above all in God), love (For God and the poor), patience (allowing God to work in God’s time), and gentleness (treating the world and all in it with care). (1 Tim 11).

How do we develop a Christian character? St. Paul has an answer. He suggests, “Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Tim 6:12). In other words, Paul is taking us back to our Baptism and Confirmation. We stood before God and we professed that our lives will be in accordance to the will of God. As a priest I stood before a congregation and vowed my life to God. To the extent that we are faithful to or deviate from that “noble confession” to that extent our Christian character is either weak or strong. If we want to develop a Christian character this week pray about the six things Paul talks about – Righteousness, Devotion, Faith, Love, Patience, and Gentleness. St. Paul is urging us to let our faith (noble confession) and our life come together.