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, a Greek by birth and a native of Antioch on the Orontes, was ordained by Paul as Bishop of Crete. It is to these two companions of Paul that he wrote the three pastoral letters found in the New Testament (I&II Timothy, Titus).
In the First reading, Paul reminds Timothy to put to use the gift of faith that appears to run in his family in order to proclaim the Good News 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 and not of cowardice. Moreover, the hardships that come with the call (such as Paul was undergoing at the moment) need not discourage him because God has given him enough grace to withstand them. We also get to hear such an encouraging message in the Gospel reading. As Jesus was sending the seventy-two whom 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. This is because their message was going to challenge the status-quo even as it was going to demand change. 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 efforts to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God. 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 remains the same. It is this unbroken chain of the gift of faith 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. May we who are today charged with the responsibility of disseminating the faith take to heart the words of St. Paul. May the Holy Spirit whom we received during our baptism help us overcome the obstacles that might hinder us from proclaiming the good news.