BY
ENDURANCE YOU WILL GAIN LIFE
If we persevere in the daily work of
faith, the coming of the Lord will not be something to fear, but a prospect to
face with confidence.
In today's Gospel, some people around
Jesus are speaking in glowing terms about the beauty of the Temple
in Jerusalem at
that time -- how it was "adorned with noble stones." For the people
of that time, the Temple
was a source of peace and contentment, a magnificent sign of God's presence,
and a clear sign of their fidelity to Him. But the mood quickly changes as
Jesus tries to prepare them for coming events: "As for these things that
you see," Jesus says, "the days will come when there shall not be
left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down" (Lk 25:6).
Imagine their distress as they contemplate Jesus' words about the destruction of
the Temple, those precious stones being thrown to the ground and broken into
pieces. Subsequently, Jesus tells them to expect other dire happenings as well.
He speaks of times when "nation will rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom." He speaks of "great earthquakes,"
"famines," "persecutions," and other calamities. Does any
of this sound familiar in our current age?
Jesus' purpose is not to instill fear,
but to inspire courage and hope. "Not a hair of your head will perish. By
your endurance you will gain your lives," Jesus tells the people in the
Gospel. In other words, if you persevere in fidelity to God, trust in God's
ultimate victory over the world, in abiding hope in God's promise to transform
sorrow into joy and death into new life, those chaotic, catastrophic events
will be worked through in complete confidence. Jesus tells us that even when
disaster strikes and everything seems to be coming apart, we will be able to
pick up the pieces and start all over again in total confidence.
The following is a true story. A mother
was answering her three-year-old daughter's questions about God. This is the
exchange that took place:
"Where is God?" "God is everywhere. He's in
everything."
"Is He in you?" "Yes, dear."
"Is He in Daddy?" "Yes, dear."
"Is He in me?" "Yes, dear."
"Did He make us with His
fingers?" "Yes, dear, in a
way."
"Did He use glue?" "Sort of. And He still uses it because
sometimes we come apart."
"Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up," Jesus said in John 2:19. "We are ill-clad,
buffeted and homeless," the Apostle Paul wrote, "Nevertheless, when
reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to
conciliate." Then Paul added, "I urge you to be imitators of me"
(1 Cor). Paul also said the following: "Rejoice in sufferings; suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit." To put it mildly, Paul believed in
picking up the pieces. Whenever he was threatened to unglue, Paul allowed the
glue of Divine Grace to keep him from coming apart spiritually, emotionally,
and physically.
Whether it's a hurricane or an
earthquake, whether disaster strikes outside or in your own inner-self, there
is nothing else so worthwhile as picking up the pieces. So stay calm, trust,
and stay on the path of life that is a gift from God.
"Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up." Let us keep on giving thanks for a God who not
only can shake the world, but can also pick up the pieces!