28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In our Second Reading today (2 Timothy 2:8-13) Saint Paul declares that “The word of God is not chained.” This message is written from prison, as Paul’s preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has landed him in jail and in chains. After his own conversion, Paul was willing to pay any price to bring the message of redemption to the ends of the earth. He suffered beatings, banishment, chains and imprisonment as a consequence of proclaiming the Gospel. The most prolific writer of the New Testament and the most travelled of any Apostle, Saint Paul literally went to the four corners of the known world of his day, to preach that there was a new and powerful way in which people were being called to live out their lives.

We, like the generations of faithful servants of Jesus who have come before us, must be willing to pay the price for our strong conviction that the way to wholeness of life, free from the leprosy of our sins, is to follow the ways of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Saint Paul goes on to tell us that even if we are unfaithful to the Lord, Jesus will not deny us and will remain faithful to us, for to do otherwise would be to deny that he is the Savior of the world. This, he will never do!

Let us, therefore, strengthen our resolve to never imprison the word of the Lord because we are embarrassed by it, or it is too hard for us to carry out its message. Let us shed the leprosy of our sins and the chains brought on by our own doubts, and rededicate ourselves to being missionaries of God’s mercy and love to a world in crisis. Whenever we are feeling a little less than zealous about our call to discipleship, less us look for the nearest crucifix and there realize the depths of God’s love for each and every one of us.