Please read this passage before reading this homily.
The scene is that of an aging Paul writing to a young Timothy. Each was looking into the future, one from experience, the other in apprehension.
Paul was Jewish. He had worshiped God with a clear conscience as his Jewish ancestors had done. He recalled (in a section not read in this pericope) Timothy’s growth in faith in the bosom of his family. He noted that Timothy had become a disciple a long time before. Therefore, Paul was encouraging the younger Timothy to fan into fire the grace and gift Timothy had received when Paul imposed hands on his head, setting him apart for the Gospel. Paul believed that God had set Timothy apart for some good work by this gesture.
Timothy, perhaps, had argued with Paul that he was young and had not finished his college degree, and that, therefore, he was not fit for the work.
Paul would answer that the call comes, not because of a person’s qualification, but according to God’s call. If God thinks of someone as ready to be called, it is because God makes the person ready.
Paul’s experience was that God had appointed Paul while Paul was busy lynching Christians. It was God who had called Paul, not Paul who had called God. The same would go with Timothy.
Timothy had to follow the call because Paul had learned that he had to follow the call of God. We are all called by God. We cannot argue with God any more than Timothy or Paul could have. Each of us has God’s work to do because God has imposed his hand upon us and anointed us to go out and do God’s work.