REFLECTIONS TODAY
Today, we honor two of St. Paul’s collaborators: Sts. Timothy and Titus, his “true sons in the faith.” Of Timothy, Paul writes to the Philippians, “I have no one comparable to him for genuine interest in whatever concerns you. You know his worth, how as a child with a father he served along with me in the cause of the Gospel” (2:20, 22). This can as well be said of Titus.
The Gospel presents Jesus’ parables of the seed. Jesus is the Sower who sows the seed of the Word of God. After him, the Apostles and other ministers of the Gospel would take their turn in sowing. Paul says that while he sowed the seed of faith in Corinth, and Apollos watered it, it is God who caused the growth (1 Cor 3:6). Timothy and Titus did this with Paul in other places as well.
FIRST READING • 2 Tm 1:1-8
Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God for the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dear child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
I am grateful to God, whom I worship with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day. I yearn to see you again, recalling your tears, so that I may be filled with joy, as I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and that I am confident lives also in you.
For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM • Ps 96
“Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.”
GOSPEL • Mk 4:26-34 [or Lk 10:1-9]
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
He said, “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.