Response to the world

Catholicism and Christianity are not popular with many in the media and many “opinion makers” in the world today.

The world often does not seem to like faithful Christians who are forthright about their faith and who live it fully within in the Church and beyond it.

In the face of all this, the message to us in today’s first reading (2 Timothy 4:1-8) is simple:

Tough.

I charge you
in the presence of God
and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:

proclaim the word;

be persistent
whether it is convenient or inconvenient;

convince,
reprimand,
encourage
through all patience and teaching.

For the time will come
when people will not tolerate sound doctrine
but, following their own desires
and insatiable curiosity,
will accumulate teachers
and will stop listening to the truth
and will be diverted to myths.

But you,
be self-possessed
in all circumstances;

put up with hardship;

perform the work of an evangelist;

fulfill your ministry.