My days have been so full of late that I have had a little difficulty posting to my "almost daily" blog. Even today I recognize that unless I get this scribbling done early, I will probably not be able to return to it. The result of my "busyness" is that I missed the opportunity to introduce St. Paul's Letters to Timothy when we began reading them last week. So pardon me if I do it today.
The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus represent a different component of St. Paul's ministry. Rather than address himself to an entire community, he writes these letters to those who are charged with the care of the community, their pastors. St. Timothy is reputedly the pastor of the community of Ephesus to whom Paul earlier wrote his letter to the Ephesians. These letters are also different in content in that they address organizational issues as well as a new problem that has sprung up in the Church. While Paul's enemies were formerly the Judaizers (those who believed that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians), now Paul is addressing issues that concern a group known as the Gnostics.
It is also evident that the Church community is becoming more "organized." While the community of believers began as a very loosely knit confederation of believers, now the Church sees individual communities which are being led by men who have been appointed by the original apostles. Duties of pastors and of other ministers in the community are beginning to be defined more carefully.
In our own time, these letters are often used as the subject matter to be pondered by men as they approach the altar for ordination. I remember my own retreat preparing for my ordination to the diaconate during which the director of the retreat asked me to use the Letters to Timothy as the basis for my prayer and meditation. However, these letters have much to say to the entire community inasmuch as they stress the necessity for the community to be guardians of the truth.
Today's passage addresses the necessity of the community to constantly pray for those in authority. Our newly elected Holy Father – it won't be long before we will have to stop calling him "newly elected" – usually punctuates the end of his various audiences with a request that the person who has been visiting him would remember him in their prayers. We should do the same for all of our leaders, both religious and civil.
CUSANS know the power of intercessory prayer, of holding those who are part of our lives close to the Lord in prayer. More than one of our letter writing groups has pledged their prayers for the Holy Father in their group's intention. Let us remember all of our leaders and in particular the administrator of our beloved Apostolate!