In his second letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy 1: 1-8, St. Paul reminds Timothy “to
stir into flame the gift of God that you have[been given] through the imposition
of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power
and love and self-control.” We, too, at
our baptism and confirmation and in the sacrament of the sick, have been given “a
spirit…of power and love and self-control,” not “a spirit of cowardice”. However, believing Satan’s lies that we are
unable, we can allow fear to control our lives. We can shrink from acting
courageously and cooperating with grace. We do just that when, for instance, we
avoid asking for forgiveness from God and from those persons we offend by our
words or by our coldness, by our harshness and/or judgments. When Satan whispers into our ears that “it is
too hard,” or that “we are weak,” to do the good to which we are called, we are
then being lied to by the Father of Lies.
On the contrary, as Paul tells us, we are able to “bear[our] share
of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God.” God never inspires us to do a good without
giving us the grace needed to do that good.
And how do we “stir into flame the gift of God” that we have
been given by the imposition of a priest’s hands at our baptism and
confirmation? By doing good, by serving
others, by taking time for prayer and reflection upon the Scriptures, by
receiving the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation, by engaging in reading
that nurtures our spiritual growth, by gazing upon God in the Blessed Sacrament
or in other places where God’s peace abounds and by letting God gaze upon us in
love from the Crucifix, from the Tabernacle, from the eyes of an innocent
child, by looking for God in all of creation, in all of His beloved children,
and in all of the events of our lives.
