Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
(I Timothy 1:1-2.12-14; Luke 6:39-42)
C.S. Lewis was baptized as an infant, but at sixteen lost
his faith. He could not believe that a
good God would create such a messy world.
However, has he matured, he encountered several highly intelligent men
who made him question his atheism.
Feeling pursued by a relentless savior, Lewis one night went down on his
knees and prayed. He then became one of
the most effective Christian apologists of the twentieth century. His story parallels that of St. Paul in today’s
first reading.
Although many biblical experts maintain that someone else wrote
the First Letter to Timothy for Paul, the letter itself assumes Paul’s
voice. Paul writes that he persecuted the
Church as an evidently young and definitely arrogant man. He shows gratitude for having been rescued
from his unbelief and for coming to know Christ.
Many people today have similar experiences to those of St.
Paul and C.S. Lewis. They have been convinced
by the sheer goodness of Christ and clarity of the gospel that egotism and hedonism
are not valid ways of being in the world.
They encourage the rest of us when we grow lax in believing.
