Our Easter readings from the Acts of the Apostles continue to
give us stories of the amazing courage and fortitude of the early Church in
spreading the Gospel. Imagine, on his
first missionary journey, Paul had already traveled hundreds of miles through
treacherous mountain paths, storm-ridden seas, rapid rivers, bandit ridden
lowlands. He is preaching the Gospel up
in modern day Turkey; a group of Jews appear from the south, where he had been
preaching some time before, and they turn the crowds against Paul to the point
where they stone him, injuring him so badly, they thought he was dead, and so
they drag him out of town to be devoured by the carrion feeders.
Remember in second Corinthians, when Paul says: “Three times
I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked” well,
this is probably the stoning he was referring to. Some Christian disciples
gather around his body, probably to start planning his funeral, perhaps though,
the pray for his resuscitation, he might have been actually dead, mind you; Paul
stands up, brushes the dust off, and walks right back into the city.
Misunderstanding, slander, rejection, the trauma of physical
torture, and even the threat of death---these things do not stop the apostles’
mission. One might expect the apostle to relax his mission in the face of such
extreme resistance. Paul gets up, and
goes to the next town.
Not to belittle Paul’s great suffering for the Gospel, but
sometimes it feels like life stones us and leaves us for dead outside of
town. The loss of a job, the death of a
loved one, the betrayal of friends. Or those of us who are involved in
ministry, trying to do the work of Christ, sometimes it feels like the deck is
stacked against us, even some members of the Church seem to be working against us.
Authentic Christianity involves the cultivation of the
virtue of fortitude. St. Paul, said it
well this last Sunday, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to
enter the Kingdom of God.”
The great apologist C.S. Lewis said, “Hardship often prepare
ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
We heard in the Gospel today, on the night before he died,
Jesus promises his disciples a gift: “the gift of peace; peace, not as the
world gives.” When the world speaks of
peace, it means a life without crosses, without suffering, a numbness to the
suffering around us.
The Lord however promises us a peace which we can experience
while carrying the cross, a peace which we can know while being crucified. The peace that Jesus gives isn’t a nice
feeling that comes from pretending that our crosses are no big deal or running
away from crosses, setting them down when they get to heavy or scary or
demanding or inconvenient.
Christian peace comes from enduring our hardships with
Christian faith, knowing that what suffer is for the sake of the kingdom, it is
done out of love for God and love for souls. Peace is not promised to us for
any task, we aren’t promised peace or success in our selfish pursuits. But
peace and strength and courage are promised for the spread of the Gospel and building
up of the Church.
This is a peace, St. Paul says, which “is beyond all
understanding.” As we come forward to receive the Eucharist today, let us ask
God for a purifying of our intentions, that our pursuits might not be out of
selfish, lazy or ambitious motives, but that through our endurance of hardships
for the sake of the kingdom, we may know God’s gift of peace, for the glory of
God and salvation of souls.
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