Friday, Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
In his second letter to Timothy Paul says, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith’. In today’s first reading from the first letter to Timothy, Paul calls on Timothy to ‘Fight the good fight of the faith’. The language of fighting the good fight of the faith may seem a bit too war-like for our taste. Yet, it reflects the often hostile environment in which the first Christians were trying to live their faith. They had a fight on their hands to live their faith because so much in the culture was against them. The early Christians were also aware that their fight was not just with those who were hostile to their faith and wanted to see it extinguished but, more fundamentally, it was with the spiritual powers who stood behind their opponents. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, ‘our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil’. Remaining faithful to the Lord’s gospel will always involve something of a struggle in every age. There are many forces today that work against our living the gospel to the full. Yet, in this struggle we are not alone. The Lord gives us all the spiritual armour we need. He supports us through the Holy Spirit that he pours into our lives. He supports us from within the community of faith. We journey together in faith and the Lord is in our midst when we gather in his name. Jesus himself depended on the support of others. According to the gospel reading, on his missionary journeys he received support from a group of women who provided for him and the Twelve from their own resources. They were his spiritual armour. We can be confident that the risen Lord himself will our spiritual armour at every step of our faith journey.