At Mass yesterday, I reflected upon how the Sexagesima readings help us to prepare well for the season of Lent. Like the good soil that bears fruit 100 fold, we are to make our souls fertile soil for conversion—for the Word of God to take ever deeper root—through our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. And, as Paul describes his endurance of so many hardship in the epistle, we too are to willingly embrace the burden of Lenten penance for the good of the Church.
I’d like to reflect a little more this evening on the resistance Paul faced; for Paul faced tremendous resistance from the powers of the world, and even from the devil: imprisonments, beatings, the machinations of false Christians, temptations of the flesh, and temptations to forsake his mission.
The work of the Lord will always be marked by hardship. I came across a quote today in my Legion of Mary handbook from a Mother Janet Stuart, general superior at the turn of the century of the Society of the Sacred Heart. She writes “If you look to Sacred History, Church History, and even to your own experience, you will see that God’s work is never done in ideal conditions, never as we should have imagined or chosen.” We might fantasize about spreading the Gospel in a more ideal setting, but this is it. In the wake of Vatican II, and the crumbling of American Society, with boundless political corruption, fallen away Catholics in our own families, this is it. We don’t choose the times in which we live.
Many Christians are paralyzed in fear of all of the hardships of our modern day.
How did Paul avoid paralysis with all of the hardships he faced? What kept Paul from despair? No doubt, Paul’s faith, was one source. His encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascas, likely gave him near unshakeable faith, to the point where he says, woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel of Christ’s risen from the dead. When facing despair, we do well to make an act of faith in Christ, who is truly with his Church until the end of time. “Bear your share of hardship with the strength that comes from the Gospel” Paul wrote to his coworker Timothy. Taking the Gospel ever more deeply to heart will always strengthen us.
No doubt, Paul’s coworkers also encouraged him through those hardships. He saw the sufferings his fellow apostles willingly bore, and that strengthened him. The faith of the Christian communities also encouraged him. Of the Philippian Christians he wrote, “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.” As a pastor, when I think of the spiritual progress, and the growth in good works here at St. Ignatius, I am filled with similar encouragement and gratitude. I’ve said it before, when I see young Catholic families serious about living out the faith, that strengthens me too.
So we should take heart from the faith that we do see exhibited by our fellow Catholics.
Paul, finally, was a man of prayer. Pray without ceasing, Paul teaches. No doubt, from his prayer life, he developed that trust in God’s help, to the point where he can say in all honesty, Lord, your grace is sufficient, even in my weaknesses I am made powerful by your grace.
May we like Paul find great encouragement in our prayer life as well, that in the face of our many hardships we may be faithful to our share in the church’s mission for the glory of God and salvation of souls
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