Fr. John Ryan

 

TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

30th September 2007

Paul's first letter to Timothy is rich with advice. In the passage presented to us today there are a number of suggestions made.
You must aim to be upright and religious, filled with faith and love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith and win the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made your noble profession of faith before many witnesses. Now, before God, the source of all life, and before Jesus Christ, who witnessed to his noble profession of faith before Pontius Pilate, I charge you to do all that you have been told with no faults or failures, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A blueprint for ministry, it is a succinct description of what is necessary to be an effective and enriched shepherd of God's people. Rooted in the profession of faith, our lives are to be directed towards the ultimate goal - eternal life. In living in this world we must have our eyes towards the next. It doesn't mean that we renege on our duties and responsibilities but we need to put them into context. This world is not the be-all and end-all. It is the journey to the God who is the source of all life. When we profess our faith we launch ourselves fully on that journey. In acknowledging God we begin the adventure of faith, the exploration of the life given to us to live. Our profession of faith was made on our behalf by our parents and godparents at our Baptism; we renewed it ourselves at Confirmation - these are the two major sacramental moments of dedication to the Father, Son and Spirit, public proclamations that God means something to us and we wish to respond to his revelation. However, every time we say the creed we make that profession of faith as well and it is done in a public setting on Sunday during the celebration of the Eucharist. If this is truly a profession of faith then we must reflect on what it says. We must know what it is we are professing. And more importantly, knowing what we are expressing, what we are stating has to lead to action. It has to be real; otherwise, it is only a collection of words and not a true profession. If it is a true profession then it will bolster us, focus us on being upright, filled with faith and love persevering and gentle - mirroring the God we believe in. To say 'I believe in God, the Father Almighty ..and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord ..and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life' and then not follow the precepts of the Lord, see Jesus as the model and inspiration of right living and recognise that the Spirit dwells within us, making us sacred is to miss the point of the profession of faith.
More space than this would be needed to tease out the ramifications of the creedal statements. They are rich with meaning and deserve to be reflected upon. When we reflect on what we profess and allow it to sink in we create the foundation for those attributes proposed by Paul for good living. Such reflection would help to engage us is dialogue with Jesus himself and focusing on God and his love for us.