Do you have a Paul or Timothy in your life?
Someone who is filled with the Spirit?
From whom God’s love just overflows?
Today I had the gift of attending a daily Mass. I wish it was a normal thing, but it is not. Not with a two year old. But here I was today with my two year old in tow, because I really needed to be there. After mass, I saw my “Paul or Timothy." She was seated in the pew at the opposite side with her own little two year old. I approached her without words and was able to put my head on her shoulder and just cry. She prayed while I let the tears flow. Her words and God’s peace surrounded me and I emptied myself in heaving sobs and let God work through her to fill me back up again.
Life is tough. It is filled with frustrations big and small, with job losses and death, with fights and tears, but it is also filled with love. And we have others around us to share in our joys and struggles both.
I love the line in the first reading: . . . I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace . . . .
We are not in this alone. God gave us His son, and His Church for good reason. Just as the disciples and apostles and early church fathers relied on one another, we too can rely upon one another.
Look at your own life—are you acting as a true servant of Christ in your community? Our domestic church is so important—but so too is the wider community in which we serve. No matter the day or the circumstances, we should be there to pull one another out of the well.
Paul/Timothy writes with such excitement (and run on sentences) as they pray that our love abounds, that we increase our knowledge and grow in purity and righteousness. Perhaps as we allow this to happen, we may become more like Christ Jesus, and be the Paul or Timothy to everyone we encounter.
MaryRuth Hackett is a full-time wife and mother doing her best to teach her four children to love God and country. You can find out more about her here.
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