First Reading: 2 Tm 1:1-3, 6-12
Psalm: Ps 123:1b-2ab, 2cdef
Gospel: Mk 12:18-27
St. Paul’s epistle today calls us to work for the Gospel with God’s strength. And this means knowing many things, having people skills, being patient and wise, prioritizing, dealing with stumbling blocks, choosing when to push forward or be prudent and hold one’s peace. We tend to rely solely on our skills, trusting that God will not expect from us what we do not know or have not learned from school, home or past experience.
It is always startling when we see how we have been prepared by some question in a seminar, something we had just read, some activity which had absolutely no bearing (or so we thought) on spreading the Good News, or some fresh lesson stored in our memory bank. Yes, these recent things are now part of our skills and talents and yet the events which had conspired to equip us with these new things have come from the deep well of God’s thought. His strength has indeed taken over because ours remains inadequate. This should fill us with thankfulness for God’s grace and wonder that His infinite power is ever at work to achieve in us the many things He desires for building
up His Kingdom.