The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. The Church today celebrates saints Timothy and Titus, friends and disciples of St. Paul. St. Timothy was the son of a pagan father and a Hebrew-Christian mother, Eunice. He accompanied Paul on his journeys. St. Paul consecrated him Bishop of Ephesus. Tradition has it that he was stoned to death by a mob when he opposed the observance of a pagan festival. St. Titus was also a friend and disciple of Paul who ordained him Bishop of Crete. It is to these two companions of Paul that he wrote the three pastoral letters found in the New Testament.
In the First reading, Paul reminds Timothy to put to use the gift of faith that appears to run in the family (coupled with the holy spirit that he received when Paul laid hands on him and consecrated him a bishop) in order to proclaim the good whose servant he has become. Paul reminds him in a particular way not to be cowed by any hardship that might come his way as he goes about his ministry. For the spirit he received from God is a spirit of power and courage. Moreover, the hardships that come with the call (such as Paul was undergoing) need not discourage him because God has given him enough grace to withstand them. We also get to hear such encouraging tone in the Gospel reading. As Jesus was sending the seventy-two he had commissioned on their way, he reminds them that the message that they were going to proclaim was going to subject them to all kinds of ridicule and rejection even to the point of being persecuted because it is a message that challenges the status-quo. However, they were not to worry about their lives because every hair on their head had been counted (cf. Luke 12:7).
Paul’s instruction to Timothy is still relevant today. Believers continue to face all kinds of challenges in their proclamation of the good news. There are corners of the earth that are yet to come to the knowledge of the truth. And while the struggles faced today might be slightly different from those that Timothy and Titus faced as they proclaimed the good news, the role that strong faith plays cannot be understated. It is the unbroken chain of the gift of faith that has been handed down generation after generation since the time of the apostles that has enabled men and women to continue working in the vineyard of the Lord.