Sunday before and Eve of Theophany; The Holy Martyrs Theopemptus and Theonas; The Venerable Syncletica.
2 Timothy 4:5-8; Mark 1:1-8.
Read 2 Timothy 4:5-8
The coordination of the human body is one of the most beautiful things in all creation. A violinist or a dancer bringing their innermost thoughts and feelings out through the harmonious movement of bone, tendon, and muscle is a wonder to behold. It creates moments that others can enter, be affected by, and take inspiration from into their own lives. When that coordination is scaled up to the level of an orchestra or a dance company, it is breathtaking.
The world we are a part of is woefully discordant and uncoordinated. Leading into today’s epistle reading, the Apostle Paul speaks of our time as one in which people are unteachable and ignorant of their lack of competence in spiritual living. Paul turns to his disciple Timothy and gives him the syllabus to practice as the first Bishop of Ephesus: “always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.”
Shining through the Pauline epistles is the vision of the Church – us! – as the body of Christ. “We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)
“Always be steady” and “endure suffering” is the stuff of practice. Whether mastering a musical instrument or ourselves as an instrument through which to live, it takes persistent practice. When the living we are called to do is love, the art we must become practiced at, like our Lord, is suffering.
Our own living is to be coordinated with others toward evangelism, together creating moments that others can enter, be affected by, and take divine inspiration from into their own lives.