for June 6
Saturday of the Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

This second letter to Timothy is written as an instruction book for leaders of the Church, though many of the lessons apply to all of us as followers of Jesus. The letter lists the virtues Christian ministers should practice in their lives and ministry. This Chapter 4 that we read today is the summit of that teaching and focuses especially on the ministry of preaching. “Proclaim the word” is the solemn charge.

The author—for dramatic purposes presented as St Paul himself—turns his attention primarily to the opponents of the word. These are the people who “will not tolerate sound doctrine” and “will be diverted to myths.” There can be no compromise with such resistance to the truth that is being proclaimed in the preached word.

I have heard this passage invoked many times, by conservatives and liberals within the Catholic Church and by fundamentalist ministers and by social justice advocates. And that’s precisely the problem! How can the preacher be so sure that he or she is right, that the opposing voices are devoid of even a grain of truth? The claimants to the preaching title, differing so radically as they do, cannot all be right.

This is the perennial problem that weighs on a Church like ours that claims to hold the truth. That truth is ultimately the revelation of God’s mystery that Jesus has passed on to us—as we will celebrate in tomorrow’s feast of the Trinity. The human voices, however, that proclaim that truth always do so imperfectly and can never express the whole truth. That means that contrary voices—even in the church—need to be respected, and at times even learned from. And yet that appeal to openness and dialogue is itself only a partial truth. For history is filled with many instances in which the stubborn adherence to a position, even to the point of disobeying lawful authority, is courageous witness. Looking back, we can see in hindsight that at the time our only hold on the truth came through a humble voice refusing to yield even in the face of physical threats and absolute rejection.

The author of the letter, posturing as St. Paul himself, seems to assume the role of prophetic voice. As much as we find that portrait inspiring, perhaps in more ordinary circumstances and given our own limitations it is better to focus on the part of the instruction that includes the words “convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” Maybe those words capture the heart of the message for us because they express the humility that the preacher needs and the dialogic nature that true preaching must assume. Preaching is not really a one-way street, but more a conversation between two parties each seeking the truth, and hopefully with sincerity and honesty. Isn’t this what makes preaching really hard?

Our nation is polarized because so many times we are prone to assume the dramatic stance of denouncing our opponents, attacking them in the most personal of terms. Better for most of us to step down from the pulpit that we have made our personal soap box. And yet, with so much at stake, we are convinced that this is also the time of courageous witness because so many truths are being set aside and trampled upon. We are caught in the oldest dilemma that has always plagued human society between destructive disintegration and a longed-for unity.
—Walter F. Modrys SJ

Today’s readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.