From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
Jan 26 =E2=80=93 Ss Timothy and Titus
(1st century AD)
Ss Timothy and Titus, Bishops. They were two of St Paul's most loya=
l
disciples. They seem to have attended the Council of Jerusalem with
him and both died toward the end of the first century. Timothy
represented Saint Paul to various communities and, according to
tradition, was eventually placed him in charge of the Church at
Ephesus. Titus was asked to organise the Church in Crete. They are
honoured as leaders to whom St Paul sent pastoral letters in the New
Testament. Since the revision of the Roman Calendar in 1970, they
share a feast on the day following the feast of the
Conversion of St Paul (25th Jan).
Patrick Duffy traces what is known about them.
____________________________
TITUS
At the Council of Jerusalem
Although not mentioned by name in the Acts of the Apostles, Titus was
recruited by Paul quite early on as a companion and was the occasion
of controversy at the Council of Jerusalem. Since he was a Gentile,
there was pressure from the hard-line Jewish party on Paul to have him circumcised. However, Paul firmly resisted this and eventually his
view prevailed. According to tradition, Titus journeyed to Jerusalem
and witnessed the preaching of Christ during the Lord's ministry on
earth. Only later, however=E2=80=93 after the conversion of St. Paul and th=
e
beginning of his ministry =E2=80=93did Titus receive baptism from the
apostle, who called the pagan convert his =E2=80=9Ctrue child in our common faith.=E2=80=9D
Corinth
Titus appears again in Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 C=
or
2:13, 7:13 and 8:6): he was probably the bearer of an angry letter
from Paul to the Corinthians, but he acted quite successfully as
Paul's ambassador in Corinth in rather difficult circumstances,
sorting out disputes in the Corinthian church and organising a
collection for Jerusalem.
Crete and Dalmatia
Paul sent a letter to Titus whom he left in Crete (Tit 1:5; See Acts
24:7-12). The letter gives him instructions to ordain =E2=80=9Celders=E2=80= =9D and
control the Cretans, of whom Paul did not have a very high opinion
(Tit 1:12). In 2 Tim 4:10 Paul says Titus had gone on a mission to
Dalmatia and he is especially venerated in Croatia.
Influence
Later tradition venerated Titus as the first bishop of the Cretan city
of Gortyna. In 1966 the head of Titus was returned from Venice where
it had been venerated at St Mark's since the 9th century to the chu=
rch
of St Titus at Heraklion in Crete.
___________________________
=C2 TIMOTHY
Paul took Timothy on as an apostolic travelling companion probably on
the occasion of his second visit to Timothy's home town of Lystra. =
The
Christian community spoke well of him. His mother was a Jewess, who
had converted to Christianity, but his father was a Greek. Contrary to
his stance in the case of Titus, Paul had Timothy circumcised =E2=80=9Con account of the Jews in the locality=E2=80=9D.
Paul's companion to Macedonia and Greece
Timothy travelled with Paul and Silas to Macedonia and through Greece
to Corinth, working with Paul and Silas to set up the churches in
Corinth, Thessalonica and Philippi. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul
commends Timothy to them as a faithful co-worker (1 Cor 4:17; 16:10).
At Ephesus
Timothy later accompanied Paul to Ephesus in Asia Minor (Acts 19:2, 1
Cor 16:10-11). As the presence of his name in the first verses of
various epistles indicates (2 Corinthians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians), he was closely associated with Paul in all his work and
probably with his imprisonment in Ephesus.
In charge at Ephesus
In the Pastoral Letters Timothy is the one in charge of the church at
Ephesus. Paul calls him =E2=80=9Cmy true son in the faith=E2=80=9D (1 Tim 1= :2). Paul
is concerned about his health and writes: =E2=80=9CYou should give up drink= ing
only water and have a little wine for the sake of your digestion and
the frequent bouts of illness that you have.=E2=80=9D
Last letter
In his last letter probably written just before his death, Paul
reminisces about Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice w=
hom
Paul would have met when he first took on Timothy as a companion at
Lystra (2 Tim 1:5).
Relics
In the 4th century, Timothy's relics were transferred to the Church=
of
the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, which since 1461 has been
replaced by the Fatih Mosque.
Saint Quote:
Stretch forth your hand towards God as an infant towards its father to
be conducted by Him.
--St. Francis de Sales
Bible Quote:
"But the Lord shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for
judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness." [Psalm 9:7-8]
<><><><>
St. Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor 12:26): "If one member [of
Christ] suffers, all the members suffer. For we are naturally bound
together, we form one body in Christ. An old Rabbis said it well,
Simeon ben Eleazar: "Someone has committed a transgression. Woe to
him! He has tipped the scale to the side of debt for himself and for
the world. For any sin of someone harms all. There is no such a thing
as a victimless crime.
So the Holiness of God wants the scales rebalanced because He loves
what is right in itself. He also wants it rebalanced because the
imbalance is harmful to all the other members of Christ.
But one member can make up for another. So St.. Paul said (Col 1:24):
"I fill up the things that are lacking to the tribulations of Christ
in my flesh for His body, which is the Church." Of course, Christ
lacked no suffering. His suffering was beyond telling. But the whole
Christ, that is, Christ with His members, can lack something. For we
are not saved as individuals. We are saved in as much as we are
members of Christ. And of course that means we must be like Him--like
Him in the matter of making rebalance for sin. St. Paul knew that many
members of Christ were not doing their part--but he, Paul, could make
up for them. So he did.
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