Sermons & Homilies
Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends, but there remains a gradient of lesser loves, such as feeding the poor or clothing the naked, but are we not often loveless and complacent? Similarly, even if a man has such extremely small faith as the size of a mustard seed, he will be able to move mountains, and yet greater faith will accomplish greater deeds, but at times, are we not so faithless and numb? As we make our way down the road to the Kingdom of Heaven, our virtues and vices collide and vacillate within ourselves, making us confused about the state of our own soul and causing us to misunderstand others.
When we consider our death, do we approach it with a dreadful fear of God, or do we approach it with a sober and conscientious love toward God?
In today’s epistle reading, the Apostle Paul is writing to his spiritual son Timothy, and this will be the last epistle that the Apostle will ever write, because, as he says, “the time of my departure is at hand,” (2 Tim. 4.6ff) because he is soon to go on to Rome where he will be executed and die a martyr’s death under Nero.
