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Today the Church commemorates St. Titus, one of St. Paul’s disciples and the first Bishop of the Greek island of Crete. During Paul’s first missionary journey, young Titus was one of those who heard his preaching and was brought to faith by the Holy Spirit. Paul eventually brought Titus to Jerusalem to show the other Apostles and Jewish believers that a Greek, someone from a heathen background, could believe in Jesus. Titus accompanied Paul on several trips and became a trusted helper, so much so that Paul used him as a messenger of his Epistles to different churches, most notably the second Epistle to the Church in Corinth. While in Corinth, Paul gave Titus the task of attempting to resolve some of the controversies there, something that would require exceptional skill and theological knowledge. After his Roman imprisonment, Paul took Titus to Crete, a place where the message of the Gospel had spread because of Pentecost. Luke records in Acts 2 that Jews from Crete were in Jerusalem for the feast, and we assume took Peter’s preaching home with them. However, the Christians of Crete were incredibly divided and disorganized and were in need of spiritual leadership. Paul had to leave, but ordained Titus as the first Bishop of Crete, the first Gentile to take on a significant leadership role in the Church. Paul requested Titus’s help in Nicopolis, but this meant leaving Crete. So, Paul wrote what is recorded for us as the Epistle to Titus, which lays out the very specific requirements of those who would hold the Pastoral Office. This enabled Titus to appoint Pastors in Crete, so he could assist Paul. After completing the work in Nicopolis, Titus went on to evangelize what today is Croatia before returning home to Crete. By God’s grace Titus was able to live in peace and died in old age, not as a martyr as so many of his brother pastors had. We give thanks to God today for His grace to Titus, the work he did in Crete and elsewhere, and especially for the Holy Spirit’s work through Titus’s preaching and teaching.
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This is the event that begins it all. Jesus attends a wedding at Cana, likely for a relative, and performs the first of His signs. That vocabulary is important. This isn’t His first miracle. There have been plenty of those, and we just celebrated them in December. Jesus was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary—a miracle. Aged Zacharias and Elizabeth had a son—a miracle. The wise men were led to the little Boy by a star—a miracle. Even in Jesus’ adulthood He was already performing miracles when He called His first disciples. Though He was nowhere near, He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree. So, while water being changed into wine is certainly a miracle, it is not Jesus’ first.
Monday began a new season in the Church Year as we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord. On January 6, the Church remembers the coming of the wise men from the East. Though that is the historical event celebrated, the meaning behind it is why we really celebrate. We remember the visit of the wise men because it reveals that Christ is the universal Savior. He was not sent only to save the Jewish people, but, as St. John saw in his vision of heaven, people of every “tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). The wise men from the East are representative of all the Gentiles. The Feast is called Epiphany, because the word means “to make manifest” or “to reveal.” On that day, Christ was revealed as the great Light for the people who walked in darkness and dwelt in the land of the shadow of death (Is. 9:2). And now, through the intervening weeks before we begin the season of Lent, Christ is revealed as God and Man. This time in the Church Year uncovers the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures will lift the earthly veil which hides Incarnate God below. Today we are shown that, even at a young age, Jesus knew who He is and for what reason He came to earth.
Perhaps our culture has lost the depth of meaning in a name. We can forget that names mean something. In Scripture, when someone, something, or someplace is given a name, it is given that name for a reason. That reason is often a confession, not just to tell one person from another. Abram means “exalted father,” but he was renamed Abraham, “father of a multitude,” after God promised him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Jacob means “deceitful one,” and was given that name for quarreling with his brother from Rebekah’s womb. But after wrestling with him, God gave Jacob the name Israel, which means “the Lord preserves.” After that, Jacob renamed that place Peniel, which is literally “the face of God,” because there he came face-to-face with God and, despite that, his life was preserved.
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