Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 321

Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, 
you endured a great contest of suffering.
At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; 
at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated.
You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison 
and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, 
knowing that you had a better and lasting possession.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; 
it will have great recompense.
You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.


As a boy I learned to read the lives of the saints. The books in our school library were children's books, of course, and the hagiographies were invariably sweetened with stories considered safe for children. But there were frightening stories too, that warned us of the dangers all around us. 

Tarsisius, the patron saint of altar boys and Eucharistic Ministers, was caught by a gang of thugs on his way to the Roman jail, where he would provide the martyrs-to-be with the Blessed Sacrament. When the gang suspected he was hiding something precious they beat him to death.

We boys knew about beatings. We administered those on the playground to one another. It wasn't hard to imagine a pious lad getting stomped for doing good. 
We read also about the pious girls who refused to be married to pagan husbands and the price they paid. As an adult I was deeply touched by the statue of Saint Agnes when I visited her church in Rome. The life-size, life-like statue on the floor of the Church is overwhelming. I wanted to kneel by that child and comfort her. 

Americans are optimists by nature and disinclined to remember the past, especially when it suggests that history is cyclic. We want to believe in a determinism that says things are always getting better, and we have left the bad times behind. 

But "You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised." 

As I read the psalms, especially the many psalms of lamentation, it helps to remember our Catholic practice of hearing the voice of Jesus in all the psalms. When the psalmist complains about the mistreatment of his neighbor, brethren and enemies, we recognize the familiar voice of Jesus. We identify with him and know that the Kingdom of God is still a long way off. 

The Christian life is never going to get easier. That, I'm sure, is one of God's promises. We must expect to scatter seeds on the ground that promise little in the way of reward. We should expect that our unassuming mustard seeds of prayers and good works might appear as futile as tossing starfish in the sea. And we should keep up the good work.