Homily June 3, 9th Week in Ordinary Time

I had morning Mass at Holy Name in Birmingham https://youtu.be/HqEirLN3DDI?si=0msAyBfaCbjUBhOQ

"I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God." Reflection on 2 Timothy 1:6, Wednesday June 3, 2026

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Transcript

As intriguing as the challenge is in the gospel, I'd like to focus instead on the first reading from Paul's letter to Timothy. Timothy was a bishop in the early church. He must have been young. Paul calls him my child. Paul ordained him with a laying on of hands. We hear that reference in the text today. There are two verses that are favorites of mine. Perhaps they're familiar to you as well and maybe even favorites of yours. Paul writes, “For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:6)  

That image, “stir into flame the gift of God that you have.” If you think about getting a fire going, oxygen is essential to fire. And the more oxygen applied, the hotter the flames will burn. So one way of getting more oxygen into the fire is to fan the flames, stir into flame. Paul's use of fire also seems to resonate with our image of the Pentecost event from the Acts of the Apostles. “Tongues of fire appeared among them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:3-4) And our Catholic prayer for the Holy Spirit echoes this same language. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.”

“Stir into Flame” also reminds me of an image that St. Matthew borrowed from Isaiah chapter 42, to describe Jesus' ministry. “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. A bruised reed he will not break.” You know how if you keep bending something, eventually a bruised reed Jesus will not break. “And a smoldering wick he will not quench. He'll tend that tender flame to allow it to grow and burst into flame. 

“I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have.” It's already given. All we need to do is use it. Paul is calling Timothy to be who he is called to be. Accepting God's grace will lend grace to our everyday comings and goings. Thomas Merton captured the call of all of us and all of creation when he says, “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be, it is obeying God.”

The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a poem “As Kingfisher's Catch Fire.” The kingfisher is one of the most colorful birds in England. It catches fire when the sun's light catch its plumage and brings it into bright radiance. And similarly, the iridescent wings of the dragonfly glint with a flame-like beauty. We too are called to consent, so to speak, to God's creative love and fan into flame God's gifts. 

As Kingfishers Catch Fire, by Gerard Manley Hopkins. 

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,

Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;

Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;

Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —

Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces.