Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee; Leave-taking of the Encounter of our Lord; The Holy Martyr Nicephorus.
2 Timothy 3:10-15; Luke 18:10-14.
Read 2 Timothy 3:10-15
How do we feel about coming to a fork in the road? On a leisurely hike, it can be an exciting opportunity to choose an unknown path to discover. On a family vacation in a new place, it can be an anxiety-inducing possibility of getting lost. In life, we are always choosing our path, even if we are choosing to stay on the path we’ve previously chosen. There will always be forks in our road.
One fork in our road is, “evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse.” Imposters are especially dangerous. They influence from within. Left unchecked, over time they can become the defining feature. People who follow them become impostors themselves without realizing it.
The other fork in our road is, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed”. But how are we to know what to learn, believe, and continue in when there are impostors around? Timothy, the first Bishop of Ephesus, is provided with two ways of knowing, that if kept together, will always keep us on the right track: scripture and tradition.
Scripture is “the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”. Tradition is “knowing from whom you learned it” – the Apostle Paul. Paul provides a list of the things he has passed on to Timothy: “my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings”. But these are not different things. They are together one thing. None of them can be separated and stand in isolation from the others. And this apostolic tradition and scripture are likewise “a single sacred deposit of the word of God” (CCC 97).