A 16th Sunday after Pentecost Thought to Start the Week Off Right
Today marks the end of Q3. In a few days Q4 begins. At least that's how my worker-self sees things.
Comparing the work flow of a year to a mile race, Q4 marks the final dash to the finish line. While deadlines pepper the whole year, the 4th quarter usually presents us with at least a few special deadlines we've just got to meet before we "sign off" for the Christmas and New Year's break that will lead us into 2020. If we've run a good race all year and paced ourselves properly, we've got enough in reserve for this final sprint.
How has the year treated you so far? I suspect most of us have had our share of ups and downs. That's just how life goes, isn't it? The ups don't need much tending. The downs are another story. But it's the downs that contain the seeds of spiritual growth. We have to remember this. And remembering it, it behooves us to do something with it.
So what to do? Well, it depends on the nature and severity of what we may face in Q4. From a personal perspective, nothing could be worse than what happened during Q4 of last year: Our oldest child, a son, married, with a young child of his own, suffered a massive stroke. Within 18 days he died. Every Q4 challenge that seemed a bit daunting, every difficulty or mini-crisis faded into the background. They didn't cease, though. Some even increased as we spent the bulk of our days at the hospital, our son lying in a medically induced coma. Somehow (it must have been by God's grace!) every deadline was met, every crisis handled. So you might imagine that whatever awaits me this year in Q4 will be tempered by all of this.
Pray that you don't have to have your difficulties, challenges, and crises tempered by a catastrophic evil visited on a loved one!
So, again, what to do this Q4? Today's entry for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost in The Inner Life of the Soul brings us these words from St. Paul:
"I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us. If God be with us, who is against us?"
Maybe the first thing we do is put "If God be with us, who is against us?" in a prominent place so that it remains front and center as we work our way through Q4. But The Inner Life of the Soul suggests we think more about this, how St. Paul's words might apply specifically to our own situation:
"Do you imagine that, after this, St. Paul, so wonderfully saved, so divinely called, could be satisfied with less than God! that he could ever do aught else than desire great things greatly, pressing to the prize of his calling with never a backward glance, counting all things loss if so he might win Christ? Yet - should not this also be true of us?"
Of course, we know the answer. Despite knowing the answer - even if we sincerely desire to "win Christ" above all else - let's consider what it is we actually do every day.
"Let us suppose we answer, though it bring the blush to our faces. Ease, money, love, or position; release from trial, disgrace, disease, bereavement; whatever it be, let us speak it out, unflinching, to this great apostle of love and zeal. Listen again to his steadfast assertion: 'I will glory in my infirmities! I will reckon that our sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.' Then beseech him to pray for us the fervent prayer that we may be strengthened by the Spirit with might.
"If all our paltry mortal desires could be granted us, would we not quickly exchange them for this priceless gift of inward strength?"
Isn't this one of those "where the rubber meets the road" sort of questions? Consider it seriously. Answer it honestly. Depending on your answer, you should know exactly what you need to do next. If no, it's time to take your religion and your spiritual life and place them front and center, no matter the effort, not matter the cost. For the sake of your eternal soul, and the prospect of spending eternity in heaven or hell, can you afford to do any less?
But what if the answer is a heartfelt, firm and faithful "Yes!"?
"Let us then beg it of Almighty God. Strength to serve Him as soldiers follow their leader; as men truly noble follow a lofty ambition of high ideal; nay, more, - the supernatural strength to serve Him as the saints serve their Master, with glad loyalty, even to the death."
Even to the death? Is that possible? I'm no saint. Much as I admire and am grateful for the courage of the martyrs who have given all for Christ, if asked I would have to admit I don't have a great desire to join their ranks. And yet I know that with God's grace, all things are possible. With that knowledge, how can we not urgently and ardently pray for that grace?
"God grant us to forget self, to forget the low, sordid, sensual aims of our time and day! God grant us a nobler standard, holier gifts, and the grace in all humility to desire the great things of God!"
Comparing the work flow of a year to a mile race, Q4 marks the final dash to the finish line. While deadlines pepper the whole year, the 4th quarter usually presents us with at least a few special deadlines we've just got to meet before we "sign off" for the Christmas and New Year's break that will lead us into 2020. If we've run a good race all year and paced ourselves properly, we've got enough in reserve for this final sprint.
How has the year treated you so far? I suspect most of us have had our share of ups and downs. That's just how life goes, isn't it? The ups don't need much tending. The downs are another story. But it's the downs that contain the seeds of spiritual growth. We have to remember this. And remembering it, it behooves us to do something with it.
So what to do? Well, it depends on the nature and severity of what we may face in Q4. From a personal perspective, nothing could be worse than what happened during Q4 of last year: Our oldest child, a son, married, with a young child of his own, suffered a massive stroke. Within 18 days he died. Every Q4 challenge that seemed a bit daunting, every difficulty or mini-crisis faded into the background. They didn't cease, though. Some even increased as we spent the bulk of our days at the hospital, our son lying in a medically induced coma. Somehow (it must have been by God's grace!) every deadline was met, every crisis handled. So you might imagine that whatever awaits me this year in Q4 will be tempered by all of this.
Pray that you don't have to have your difficulties, challenges, and crises tempered by a catastrophic evil visited on a loved one!
So, again, what to do this Q4? Today's entry for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost in The Inner Life of the Soul brings us these words from St. Paul:
"I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us. If God be with us, who is against us?"
Maybe the first thing we do is put "If God be with us, who is against us?" in a prominent place so that it remains front and center as we work our way through Q4. But The Inner Life of the Soul suggests we think more about this, how St. Paul's words might apply specifically to our own situation:
"Do you imagine that, after this, St. Paul, so wonderfully saved, so divinely called, could be satisfied with less than God! that he could ever do aught else than desire great things greatly, pressing to the prize of his calling with never a backward glance, counting all things loss if so he might win Christ? Yet - should not this also be true of us?"
Of course, we know the answer. Despite knowing the answer - even if we sincerely desire to "win Christ" above all else - let's consider what it is we actually do every day.
"Let us suppose we answer, though it bring the blush to our faces. Ease, money, love, or position; release from trial, disgrace, disease, bereavement; whatever it be, let us speak it out, unflinching, to this great apostle of love and zeal. Listen again to his steadfast assertion: 'I will glory in my infirmities! I will reckon that our sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.' Then beseech him to pray for us the fervent prayer that we may be strengthened by the Spirit with might.
"If all our paltry mortal desires could be granted us, would we not quickly exchange them for this priceless gift of inward strength?"
Isn't this one of those "where the rubber meets the road" sort of questions? Consider it seriously. Answer it honestly. Depending on your answer, you should know exactly what you need to do next. If no, it's time to take your religion and your spiritual life and place them front and center, no matter the effort, not matter the cost. For the sake of your eternal soul, and the prospect of spending eternity in heaven or hell, can you afford to do any less?
But what if the answer is a heartfelt, firm and faithful "Yes!"?
"Let us then beg it of Almighty God. Strength to serve Him as soldiers follow their leader; as men truly noble follow a lofty ambition of high ideal; nay, more, - the supernatural strength to serve Him as the saints serve their Master, with glad loyalty, even to the death."
Even to the death? Is that possible? I'm no saint. Much as I admire and am grateful for the courage of the martyrs who have given all for Christ, if asked I would have to admit I don't have a great desire to join their ranks. And yet I know that with God's grace, all things are possible. With that knowledge, how can we not urgently and ardently pray for that grace?
"God grant us to forget self, to forget the low, sordid, sensual aims of our time and day! God grant us a nobler standard, holier gifts, and the grace in all humility to desire the great things of God!"
Happy Sunday!
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