Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 482

If God is for us, who can be against us?
He did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Setting ourselves to a serious project which will take time, energy, and determination, we might remind ourselves not to get lost in the weeds. Meaning, we will have to be reminded often of the reasons why we set out to do this marvelous work. We will not forget our goals and their promise. We take care of the small stuff without sweating about it. And so, for instance, when I drive to work I won't get upset about some fool driver who passed me like I was standing still. I've got better things to think about. 

Jesus nailed it with his parable about the seeds that are broadcast in the field. We find ourselves in his third example of frustration: 

The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. (Mt 13:22)

Few have practiced that concentration on the goal better than Saint Paul. Nor does he mind writing about the distractions he overcame as he cultivated the fields of the Lord.  They include: 

forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure...

Rather than letting them tear him away from the Lord, he used them as the ties that bound him closer to Christ who had suffered as much and far more. Even as professional torturers practiced their craft on his back, Paul felt the embrace of Him who had been scourged by Roman soldiers. If he might have buckled before his enemy's power, the two of them -- Jesus and Paul -- would not! If he was drowning at sea he took the hand of the man who walked on water. When his own Christian brothers betrayed him he remembered the Iscariot's treason. Nothing could separate him from the love of Christ. 

Where many people endlessly recall their grievances against the government, the Church, the family, the neighbor, and God himself, Paul enjoyed the memory of his sufferings for they were a story of God's power in him. He was a first-century Energizer Bunny. 

The Apostle Paul could do that because he took the time to reflect on the Wonderful Works of God as he learned the stories from his Jewish upbringing and his Christian conversion. He reflected deeply on each incident as he walked from city to town to borough. He saw that the trials of this moment last only a moment, but the triumph lasts forever. 

We live in a world that gives us no time to remember or reflect, but we can still take it. As Christians and Catholics, that is our right and privilege and duty.