Monday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 359
For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us,
so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.
If we are afflicted,
it is for your encouragement and salvation;
if we are encouraged,
it is for your encouragement,
which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

As we toil through the last of the Covid epidemic in the United States, and even as we hear of its ongoing devastation in India and South America, we can reflect on Saint Paul’s unusual expression: “Christ’s suffering overflowing to us;” and also on Paul's  overflowing encouragement

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We can suppose Saint Paul was writing from prison as he penned this “second letter.” (Scholars believe this document contains parts of several letters.) Confined and waiting for release whenever the Lord might arrange it, the world traveler reflects on his misery. “This is for your encouragement and salvation.” he concludes.

Whatever happens to him, pleasant or not, is for the benefit of others. If he accepts his confinement with its attendant miseries, he makes it a sacrifice and prayer for his disciples.
Today we speak of doing our duty, a word that took on greater importance under the influence of the philosopher Emmanuel Kant.

“According to Kant a good person is someone who always does their duty because it is their duty. It is fine if they enjoy doing it, but it must be the case that they would do it even if they did not enjoy it. The overall theme is that to be a good person you must be good for goodness sake.”

Saint Paul does not labor under that modern misconception. He has certainly been dutiful as he personally accepted the charge of announcing the Gospel to every nation. From the day the Lord knocked him down on the road to Damascus, he knew his mission and purpose in life. But it was not to "do his duty." It was to serve the Lord as the Spirit directed him. There was no doubt that Jesus was the LORD, the only God whose name -- the Tetragrammaton -- no devout Jew would speak. Paul's heart and soul, mind and strength were fixed on the LORD. 

He might prefer to be in the marketplace preaching to Jews and gentiles but if he had to cool his heels in another Roman jail, then he would serve the Lord from there. This incarceration can only be for the Glory of God! He didn’t have to wait for his release to begin serving. Nor did he consider his resting, sleeping, or travelling as down time. Every minute of the day is God’s. As he said to the Romans, "Whether in life or in death, we are the Lord's." 

Although he preferred freedom to confinement since the former is more comfortable, the latter was more like the suffering of Christ. And that is beautiful. It’s purpose? Your encouragement and your salvation. (He doesn’t seem aware of our pretentious doing penance for my sins.)

The Philosopher bears jail time with stoic resignation and grim determination. The Apostle would never be satisfied with such half-measures. He must take it over the top; he must overflow with gratitude for the privilege and opportunity to suffer with Jesus.