Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today, I’m struck by the intensity with which St. Paul writes to Timothy in today’s Epistle lesson:

‘proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable’

and just a line or two later:

‘For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires.’

This way of being, this ethos, by which one pursues Christ fully while also guiding others into the truth, seems to be a rare quality.

This passage brings to mind a theme expressed well by St. Herman of Alaska:

‘From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us love God above all, and strive to fulfill his holy will.’

Here is something to be taken from St. Paul’s letter; namely, the need to start now (today) in the work of following Christ, to teach the truth, to keep going, to ‘be persistent’.

At any rate, it is a message I need to hear.

Yours in Christ,
Justin