From: Acts 16:1-10
Timothy joins Paul
[1] And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there,
named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his
father was a Greek. [2] He was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra
and Iconium. [3] Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him
and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in those places, for
they all knew that his father was a Greek.
A Tour of the Churches of Asia Minor
[4] As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them
for observance the decisions which had been reached by the Apostles and
elders who were at Jerusalem. [5] So the churches were strengthened in
the faith and they increased in numbers daily.
[6] And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been
forbid
den by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. [7] And when
they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but
the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; [8] so, passing by Mysia, they
went down to Troas. [9] And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a
man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying, "Come over to
Macedonia and help us." [10] And when he had seen the vision,
immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had
called us to preach the gospel to them.
Commentary:
1-3. At Lystra, a city which he evangelized during his first journey
(cf. 14:6), Paul meets a young Christian, Timothy, of whom he had
received good reports. His Jewish mother Eunice and his grandmother
Lois were Christians, and Timothy had received the faith from them.
Paul's apostolic plans for Timothy, and the fact that, despite being
Jewish through his mother, he had not been circumcised, lead him to
circumcise him: everyone in the city knew he was a Jew and those who
practised the Mosaic Law might easily have regarded him as an apostate
from Judaism, in which case he would be unlikely to be an effective
preacher of the Gospel to the Jews.
"He took Timothy," St. Ephraem comments, "and circumcised him. Paul did
not do this without deliberation: he always acted prudently; but given
that Timothy was being trained to preach the Gospel to Jews everywhere,
and to avoid their not giving him a good hearing because he was not
circumcised, he decided to circumcise him. In doing this he was not
aiming to show that circumcision was necessary--he had been the one most
instrumental in eliminating it--but to avoid putting the Gospel at risk"
("Armenian Commentary, ad loc.").
In the case of Titus, St. Paul did not have him circumcised (cf.
Galatians 2:3-5); which showed that he did not consider circumcision a
matter of principle; it is simply for reasons of pastoral prudence and
common sense that he has Timothy circumcised. Titus was the son of
Gentile parents; to have circumcised him--at a point when Paul was
fighting the Judaizers--would have meant Paul giving up his principles.
However, the circumcision of Timothy, which takes place later, is in
itself something that has no relevance from the Christian point of view
(cf. Galatians 5:6, 15).
Timothy became one of Paul's most faithful disciples, a most valuable
associate in his missionary work (cf. 17:14ff; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4; 1
Thessalonians 3:2; Romans 16:21) and the recipient of two of the
Apostle's letters.
4. The text suggests that all Christians accepted the decisions of the
Council of Jerusalem in a spirit of obedience and joy. They saw them as
being handed down by the Church through the Apostles and as providing a
satisfactory solution to a delicate problem. The disciples accept these
commandments with internal and external assent: by putting them into
practice they showed their docility. Everything which a lawful council
lays down merits and demands acceptance by Christians, because it
reflects, as the Council of Trent teaches, "the true and saving doctrine
which Christ taught, the Apostles then handed on, and the Catholic
Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, ever maintains;
therefore, no one should subsequently dare to believe, preach or teach
anything different" ("De Iustificatione", Preface).
[Pope] John Paul II called on Christians to adhere sincerely to
conciliar directives when he exhorted them in Mexico City to keep to the
letter and the spirit of Vatican II: "Take in your hands the documents
of the Council. Study them with loving attention, in a spirit of
prayer, to discover what the Spirit wished to say about the Church"
("Homily in Mexico Cathedral", 26 January 1979).
6. In Galatia Paul had the illness which he refers to in Galatians 4:13:
"You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the
Gospel to you at first...": his apostolic zeal makes him turn his
illness, which prevented him from moving on, to good purpose.
7. We are not told how the Holy Spirit prevented Paul from going to
Bithynia. It would have been through an interior voice or through some
person sent by God.
Some Greek codexes and a few translations say simply "Spirit" instead of
"Spirit of Jesus", but really the two mean the same: cf. Philippians
1:19; Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11.
9. This vision probably took place in a dream: Acts tells us of a number
of instances where God made His will known in that way (cf. 9:10, 12;
10:3, 17; 18:9; 22:17). Paul and his companions were convinced he had
received a message from God.
The vision is quite right to describe the preaching of the Gospel as
help for Macedonia: it is the greatest help, the greatest benefit, a
person or a country could be given, an immense grace from God and a
great act of charity on the part of the preacher, preparing his
listeners, as he does, for the wonderful gift of faith.
10. The conviction that Paul and his companions have about what they
must do is the way every Christian, called as he is at Baptism, should
feel about his vocation to imitate Christ and therefore be apostolic.
"All Christians", [Pope] John Paul II teaches, "incorporated into Christ
and His Church by baptism, are consecrated to God. They are called to
profess the faith which they have received. By the Sacrament of
Confirmation, they are further endowed by the Holy Spirit with special
strength to be witnesses of Christ and shares in His mission of
salvation. Every lay Christian is therefore an extraordinary work of
God's grace and is called to the heights of holiness. Sometimes, lay
men and women do not seem to appreciate the full dignity and the
vocation that is theirs as lay people. No, there is no such thing as an
'ordinary layman', for all of you have been called to conversion through
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As God's holy people you
are called to fulfill your role in the evangelization of the world.
Yes, the laity are 'a chosen race, a holy priesthood', also called to be
'the salt of the earth' and 'the light of the world'. It is their
specific vocation and mission to express the Gospel in their lives and
thereby to insert the Gospel as a leaven into the reality of the world
in which they live and work" ("Homily in Limerick", 1 October 1979).
Now the narrative moves into the first person plural (16:10-17; 20:5-8;
13-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28, 16). The author includes himself among St.
Paul's companions, as an eyewitness of what he reports. Luke must have
joined the missionaries at Troas and then stayed behind in Philippi.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
From: John 15:18-21
A Hostile World
(Jesus said to His disciples,) [18] "If the world hates you, know that
it has hated Me before it hated you. [19] If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I
chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
[20] Remember the word that I said to you, `A servant is not greater
than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you; if
they kept My word, they will keep yours also. [21] But all this they
will do to you on My account, because they do not know Him who sent Me."
Commentary:
18-19. Jesus states that there can be no compromise between Him and the
world, the kingdom of sin: anyone who lives in sin abhors the light
(cf. John 3:19-20). This is why Christ is persecuted, and why the
Apostles will be in their turn. "The hostility of the perverse sounds
like praise for our life", St. Gregory says, "because it shows that we
have at least some rectitude if we are an annoyance to those who do not
love God; no one can be pleasing to God and to God's enemies at the
same time. He who seeks to please those who oppose God is no friend of
God; and he who submits himself to the truth will fight against those
who strive against truth" ("In Ezechielem Homiliae", 9).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Reading I
Today's Reflection ·