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Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

January 26th: Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops
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Gospel text (Lk 10:1-9): The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way..."

Timothy and Titus, bishops (s. I)

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, we celebrate the memory of St. Timothy and of St. Titus, bishops. Three Letters traditionally attributed to Paul are addressed to them (1Tim, 2Tim and Tit). Paul held Timothy in high esteem. Indeed, the Apostle entrusted Timothy with important missions and saw him almost as an alter ego, as is evident from his great praise of him in his Letter to the Philippians. When Paul was passing through Lystra at the beginning of his second missionary journey, he chose Timothy to be his companion because “he was well spoken of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium” (Acts 16:2).

Then, as regards the figure of Titus, Paul took him with him to Jerusalem for the so-called Apostolic Council, where the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles that freed them from the constraints of Mosaic Law was solemnly accepted.

—If we consider together the two figures of Timothy and Titus, we are aware of certain very significant facts. The most important one is that in carrying out his missions, Paul availed himself of collaborators. Another observation concerns the readiness to take on various offices that also often consisted of representing Paul in far from easy circumstances.