31 Sunday after Pentecost. Our Venerable Fathers Paul of Thebes (312-37) and John the Hut-Dweller (465-74)
1 Timothy 1:15-17; Luke 18:35-43.
Read 1 Timothy 1:15-17
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
We all have something in us that we need to continue to let go of, something from whose gripping effects we have need of further healing. For some it is open, for some hidden.
The two verses preceding today’s reading remind us that St. Paul’s sin was very open. His story has come down to us with a sense of epic redemption about it. Paul “formerly blasphemed and persecuted and insulted (Christ),” but he famously “received mercy…and the grace of our Lord overflowed for (him).”
But what about us? The conversion from our sins can sometimes seem like a long slog before such turnarounds. Before communion we, like Paul, say that Christ Jesus “came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first.” Are we really? Is it accurate to say that each one of us is the first among sinners?
Yes, it is, because the only thing that can separate us from God (that is quite a feat!) is sin – our sin. It is that which makes each one of us at that moment of confession the “the foremost of sinners.”
That is why Jesus Christ made such an example of Paul for us, that we may be encouraged as we approach the source and summit of our life. Christ Jesus came into the world to save…you. “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance.”