PARTNERSHIP - Sts. Timothy and Titus.

Reflection on the readings for the Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus.
-2nd Timothy 1:1-8 / Titus 1:1-5
- Luke 10:1-9

The readings of the proper of Saints Timothy and Titus give me a theme of Partnership for reflection today. Timothy and Titus are disciples and co-workers of St. Paul. As for the Gospel, we hear of the sending out of the seventy-two in pairs. Reading all this, I am asking why in pairs?

As I look deep inside me….I ask myself… don’t I have more courage and confidence doing something new when I am with another person?? When I am on pastoral assignment or going somewhere and doing something for the 1^st time, and being a timid person myself, I can be afraid, nervous and no confidence. But it’s all different when I am with another person, even if I am working with him / her for the 1^st time. In an embarrassing situation it is always best when we are with another person; it’s like we are sharing the embarrassment. Don’t have to be malu all alone lah!!!

Don’t all of us feel the same too, that we are much more confident when with someone. Look at gangsterism or even vandalism, they do it in a group especially when its 1^st time, eventually once they are confident and have been doing it many times they might go solo. Try going picketing alone!!!!

Somehow we draw strength from another. In the 1^st reading, St. Paul encourages Timothy to “never be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord or ashamed of me (Paul) for being his (Jesus) prisoner; but with me, bear the hardships…” I feel Paul understood what it is to have a partner in doing something different in his life. In the beginning he was a Pharisee and was actively persecuting the young Christian church and he was alone. So he must know the feelings of being alone. But after his conversion, he has been having many partners in his ministry. He needed them because it was a new life he is leading, a new mission, a new environment. He is doing all this for the 1^st time, something very new to him in-contrast to his old life.

In the Gospels, the Disciples are sent in pairs to foreign places, doing something they never done before. They are going empty handed which means they need to be thick skin to ask for assistance. They are going to meet people who might welcome or reject them.

Jesus knows his disciples and cares for them. That is why the pair. To strengthen each other in their mission. So let us pray for each other especially for our partners in faith.