God is so good! After many years of atoning for their sins, God moved the King of the Persians, Cyrus, to return the Israelites to Israel from Babylon. He commands all to assist them in rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. God had meted out to them the punishment for their infidelity to Him in being exiled to Babylon. When the proper time came, He crafted the way for them to return. Oh, how great God is!

The first Reading of today's mass of the 25th Sunday in ordinary time is a text from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. He reminds us that we need to seek God, and that we need to reset our standards and thoughts and plans because God's thoughts and plans are not like ours. He is the standard, not the other way around.

St. Paul continues to give instructions to Timothy, one of his disciples. This time he underscores the need to practice what we have been told by our faith. In this way, our faith avoids becoming simply a theoretical thing, with no connection with life. Our faith is meant to be practiced, not only thought or believed in. Our faith is life, not a book.

St. Paul reminds us as he had reminded Timothy that money is the root of all evil. We cannot escape the fact that we did not bring anything when we were born in this world. And we cannot bring anything from here when we die. He is driving at the need for us to beware of becoming attached and enslaved by the creatures of this world. There is only one God. The rest are creatures, although we might mistakenly deal with them as if they were God. This would be idolatry.

The astonishing thing about St. Matthew's calling is that Jesus simply presents Himself to this chief tax collector and addresses him, saying, "Follow Me." Remember, Jesus caught him working his slimy business. He was a public sinner in the eyes of the ordinary Israelite. But his worthiness was not the basis of his calling. It is simply God's sovereign will. He is not like a casting director looking for the right fit for the role of a movie. St. Matthew surely would not fit if we made God think like us. He chooses the one He wants, creates, and supplies him with what he needs to fulfill his calling. Our limitations should not be an obstacle to our answering yes to the divine choice. Levi stood up and left everything to follow Our dear Lord. We need to do the same!

The title of today's homily is taken from the first letter of St. Paul to Timothy, read in today's first reading of the mass, verbatim. Gone then should anyone's doubts be. There is not just the Christian who can interpret the Sacred Scriptures on his own, since he or she could claim direct contact with the Holy Spirit. The Church was established by Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Rock of St. Peter in order to uphold the truth and keep that truth safe.

St. Paul enumerates the qualities to his disciple, St. Timothy, in this letter. What is striking is that they should be of impeccable character. Our parents had this as a goal too when any of us were young. Our parents simply faced the responsibility of training us for future society. I point out, however, that this process would necessarily require the parents to practice what they teach. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for the children to learn to live virtuously.

St. Paul clearly instructs Timothy, his disciple, to pray for everybody. That referred especially to the Gentiles. We should not put limits on the quantity or quality of the people we need to pray for. He said that we pray for everyone, not only for some, for those we like, or for only the number we feel right so as not to bother the Lord with too many petitions.

For us to learn to forgive, we need to ask God for help. To err is human, to forgive is divine. And so the saying goes. Another thing for sure is what Our dear Lord warns us about. He will deal with us the way we deal with others. If we hardly grant mercy, God will do likewise to us.

This text of St. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians enlightens us to see and appreciate the following: we have a treasure and we carry it in vessels of clay. This symbolizes our fallen nature that easily falls and sins. To encourage us onward in battling our weaknesses, we need to consider we have a treasure consisting in the life of grace, our divine calling, our quest for holiness, God's love for us manifested in so many details during the day. Hence, we should not love hope. We should reach this level of self-knowledge.