In 2 Timothy 2 today, St. Paul continues to exhort Timothy, reminding him to preach and teach in a way befitting the office he has accepted. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is asked which is the first of all the commandments. He answers with not one, but two…”Love the Lord, your God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
As we listen to St. Paul encourage Timothy today, we hear him tell Timothy to “impart the word of truth without deviation.” This can often be a daunting task, can’t it? It never ceases to amaze me how, to so many, truth has become malleable. We think that we can form it and shape it and spin it until it becomes just what we want it to be. How St. Paul would cringe at this! Like Timothy, it is incumbent upon us to know what the word of truth is (we can find this in the Scriptures and the Catechism) and give it to others straight up.
Think of it this way…the “word of truth” is like medicine. We need it to make and keep us healthy and well. But most of the time we don’t like the taste of it, so we add some sugar or we water it down to make it more palatable. But then it loses its efficacy. Let’s pray that today, we’ll accept the truth without deviation, and impart it to others.
Father, we thank you for the word of truth, Jesus Christ. Though we know that many of His teachings are hard, we ask for the grace to accept and impart them just as they are…without deviation. Amen.
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