Dearest Goddaughter (LTR-85) - Do Not Be Ashamed

Dearest Goddaughter,

In today's first reading, Saint Paul tells Timothy to "not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord. . . but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God." Far too many Catholics remain silent about their faith because they allow others to shame them into silence.

They tend to coward away when others say to them: "How can you believe that? That is so archaic? That teaching is so out of touch with today, so outdated?" and so on an so forth. When we allow ourselves to be silenced by others, we dishonor God and forget that God is "not God of the dead but of the living." We allow ourselves to be "greatly misled" by others who do not practice their Catholic faith or even believe in God. We must love God above all and not be ashamed of the faith that He has entrusted to us in Jesus Christ, handed down to us through the Catholic Church and inspired and guarded by the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, as Saint Paul reminds us: "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control," and encourages us to "worship [God] with a clear conscience. . ." because Jesus "saved us and called us to a holy life." For our part, we are called to be "preacher and Apostle and teacher" of the Good News of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the world. Speak Truth. God is with us until the end of the age.

Love,

Bỏ Phúc

P.S. These are the readings for the day: 2 Tm 1:1-3, 6-12 and Mk 12:18-27 (see below)

. . .

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,

came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying,

"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,

If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child,

his brother must take the wife

and raise up descendants for his brother.

Now there were seven brothers.

The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.

So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,

and the third likewise.

And the seven left no descendants.

Last of all the woman also died.

At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?

For all seven had been married to her."

Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled

because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

When they rise from the dead,

they neither marry nor are given in marriage,

but they are like the angels in heaven.

As for the dead being raised,

have you not read in the Book of Moses,

in the passage about the bush, how God told him,

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,

and the God of Jacob?

He is not God of the dead but of the living.

You are greatly misled."