Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061712.cfm

We are always courageous,
although we know that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord,
for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Saint Paul, knowing how the Holy Spirit had snatched him from the life he had chosen, a life of pursuing and tormenting Christians, freely acknowledged the courage that drove him from Damascus to Antioch, Jerusalem, Rome, and to “the ends of the earth.” His courage was a sure sign of God’s presence within him. He also saw the good word he planted taking root, sprouting, flourishing and bearing fruit far beyond his wildest expectations. This was surely a mighty work of God.

Although he suffered grievously and often for this effort – with innumerable arrests, confinements, beatings and torture – he had to be amazed that his spirit did not falter. No sooner was he down than he was up again, sailing for the next city, eager to tell them of the Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen.

And yet Saint Paul also suffered frustration and discouragement. Even a glance through his writings will discover his anger at the “super-apostles,” his anxiety “for all the churches,” and that

“affliction that came to us in the province of Asia; we were utterly weighed down beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death….” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

He knew that he was courageous, and he knew the Spirit of God drove him. 

When his achievements are recognized the pious Christian will often bow her head and humbly insist, “I am only an unworthy servant.”  (Luke 17:10) But she can also, and with equal humility, honor his own courage.

A famous American preacher, whose name eludes me, gave the example of a man who nearly fell into Niagara Falls. The absent minded bloke was reading a novel as he stepped close to the gorge. A passerby, seeing his danger, yelled at him and was heard over the roar of the fall. Suddenly aroused he stepped back from the cliff and was saved.

He went into a nearby tavern to ponder what had happened. Clearly, he had been saved; but by what? 

• First he thought, “That fellow saved my life when he screamed at me.” 
• Then, “It was miraculous, a work of God, that I heard him over the noise!” 
• And then, “I keep hearing that marvelous word, ‘Hey, you idiot, get away from there.’ It’s like music in my ears. If I live to be a hundred I will never forget that beautiful warning!” 
• And finally, “I’m so glad I had the good sense to hear the warning and step back from the cliff!”

So the fellow was saved by four different factors: the passerby, God, the scream, and his own good sense. Anyone of them could be given all the credit for his deliverance; and he can rightly be glad of all four of them.

In today’s second reading we have heard Saint Paul speak twice of his own courage. It came from God, but it was his also.

His repeating the statement also betrays his fear. He wrote parts of Second Corinthians from prison. He could not know at the time if he would ever get out. Would he be executed? Sickened by the wretched circumstances? Abandoned, forgotten and doomed to die of old age? If released would he be able to carry on his work?

Most of my ministry has been among people a generation older than me. They are the ones who keep our churches open. They have taught me that we never outgrow our need for courage. Without it we sicken and die. Life never gets easier; I have seen that. If it was supposed to at some point, it didn’t happen. Rather, we must rely on the Spirit of God to fortify us daily for the challenges that lie ahead.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each may receive recompense,
according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.