Homily of the Day

June 6th, 2008
How Deep Is Your Faith?

2 Tim 3:10-17 / Mk 12:35-37
Again, Paul is writing to Timothy from his prison chains: ”…Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me. In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But you, remain faithful to what you have learned….”
Why that sentence about wicked people and charlatans? I think he is warning Timothy that there are those who will try to make the Christian life easy and comfortable. There are those who would accept a piece of glass instead of a diamond. People who try to follow Jesus, but do not expect persecution, according to Paul, are wicked. Taking the easy way to faith is actually wickedness.
Please let me repeat the line from Wednesday: “Can we dare to let the truth of the gospel cost us whatever it will? As one poet (the Reverend Calvin Miller) put it, ‘I don’t buy love, but I owe it everything.’ Obedience, love, the splendor of truth: pursue these, and you will have the peace that Paul lived and died in.”
Ignore these and be a deceiver or be deceived. Paul tells Timothy to keep digging to deepen the truth that he has already heard.
The digging may be slow, but the treasure to be found is worth the cost.
A lot of metaphorical language? Yes. Paul does make it very clear in our reading, though. He tells Timothy that he will find what he needs in Scripture because there is “wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
May our Lord find the faith in our hearts as precious as any diamond.

by Fr. Frank E. Jindra