Perseverance Will Secure Our Lives

Luke 21: 12-19

Trials Will Come 

 ¹² “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴ But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

Not a pretty picture, yet history has corroborated these predictions, and we survive to this day.  Faith is stronger than the wiles and tools of the "enemy"; the example of the martyrs over the centuries and to this day inspires us to bear with direct and subtle obstacles and even direct persecution.  May we not lose heart and sing along with so many others, this popular hymn:  "How can I keep From Singing?"  “No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock I’m clinging. Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

Bro. Rene

O, Christ, our lives pattern your own. You were beaten and spat upon for loving a world unused to love. We, however, expect not to be hated by the world, but admired by it; not to be betrayed, but to succeed. Save us from the lie that your name, Jesus, will bring us only success, praise, and power. Give us the endurance to suffer because we have become such great lovers of the world that we bear you in our very bodies. Amen.

 Rev. Michael Thomas, C.S.C.