NOTES for Ti1 6:11-16
In instructing Timothy, the Apostle Paul uses a very characteristic expression in today's passage. Unfortunately, the Synodal translation renders it imprecisely as "hold on to eternal life." The Slavonic "take hold of eternal life" corresponds more closely to the Greek original: "seize, hold fast to the eternal life to which you were called." The Apostle says that the faith granted to us by the Lord Jesus can be a support to which we can cling and thus escape from the abyss of hell and death. It is significant that we read this passage as the celebration of the Nativity of Christ draws to a close. In a text dedicated to the Presentation, St Cosmas of Maiuma expresses this thought very vividly. He places these words about the elder Simeon the God-receiver on the lips of the infant Jesus: "It is not the elder who holds Me, but I who hold him, for he asks Me for his release." When we receive the infant Jesus, we discover in Him, in a wonderful way, not a burden that we are called to carry, but a support to which we should hold fast.