Homily For Wednesday of The Third Week in Ordinary Time Year C, 26th January, 2022. The Memorial of SS. Timothy and Titus

 Homily For Wednesday of The Third Week in Ordinary Time Year C, 26th January, 2022. The Memorial of SS. Timothy and Titus.

Readings: 2Tim 1:1-8; Ps. 96; Mark 4:1-20

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

MAKE YOUR HEART A FERTILE GROUND SO THAT THE WORD OF GOD CAN  BEAR GREAT FRUIT THAT WILL MANIFEST IN OUR INTERIOR LIFE.

A good disposition and positive response towards whatever we do in life has a way of building up our confidence and interior life, and this of course, leads us to great success. Little wonder in our Gospel passage today, Jesus uses the parable of the sower to describe different kinds of response to God's Word. He  explained the parable by pointing out our different disposition towards the Word of God in relation to our interior life. This will help us to know whether our soul is like dry rocky ground or do we regularly seek to nourish our soul and prepare it to receive the holy Word of God. So we are called to create a fertile disposition within our heart in order to do the will of God.

In the scriptures, there are many who hear the words of Jesus and do not understand it because of poor disposition, for instance the religious leaders who are against his teachings, the crowds that responded positively to Jesus, especially to his miracles of healing, yet turned against him at the end and demanded for his crucifixion. Some disciples such as Judas might also be included among those who fall away when trouble or persecution came on account of the Word. While the rich young man who was unable to part with his possessions, provides a clear example of one who hears the word, but the love for the passing things of this world and the lure of wealth choked the word, and it yielded nothing. 

But what about the good soil? These are those who hear the Word, understands it and internalize it. They indeed bear fruit and yield an abundant harvest. Our mother Mary and the disciples excluding Judas are good example of such people. Therefore, the different kinds of ground on which the seed falls represent different ways by which we  receive the Word of God. 

Dear friends, our hearts are the fields in which the Word of God is scattered. But, to which do our hearts belong? the path way, the rocky ground, the thorns or the good soil? Whichever one, we are called to have right disposition and positive response to the Word of God. We are to pay attention and take some time to appreciate God’s Word in our lives by allowing it to bear solid root in us so that we can bear great fruits that will manifest in our interior life.

So, let us learn from SS. Timothy and Titus whose memorial we celebrate today, they were servants who truly understood what it means to belong to family of Jesus and have the right disposition towards his Word. For they were both close collaborators of St. Paul who entrusted to them the care of God’s faithful, of which they were known to be among the first Bishops of the Church. They were great servants of God with great commitment and dedication to doing the will of the Lord and suffer martyrdom for their faith.

LET US PRAY: Lord God, oftentimes our disposition and response towards your Words is so poor. As we listen to your Words today, through the intercessions of SS. Timothy and Titus give us grace to remain open to receiving your Words, so as to bear fruit abu