2 Timothy 2:1-10;
Matthew 6:22-33
There
are some who think that the way of Christ is a crutch for the weak, a source of
support for wimps, cowards, and losers to make themselves feel better about
their wretched condition. Of course, that
attitude reflects only the weakness of those who are spiritually blind, who are
enslaved to their own lust for power and refusal to show mercy to their
neighbors in their suffering. Instead of
embracing the darkness by worshiping the false gods of domination and
vengeance, faithful Christians open themselves to the divine strength that can
make even our most bitter challenges points of entry into the blessedness of
the Kingdom.
It
should go without saying that we all know pain, sorrow, and the lack of peace
all too well. Terrorist attacks in our
own country and abroad, wars seemingly without end, murder and other forms of
violence and injustice, racial and political strife, the sufferings of our brothers
and sisters in the Middle East and elsewhere who are persecuted for their faith
and forced to leave their homelands, our own loss of loved ones, and other difficult
personal problems tempt us today to allow darkness to take over souls. It is easy and often appealing to fill our
hearts with hatred, fear, and despair by accepting the lie that we will find
salvation by damning others, returning
evil for evil, and abandoning hope. But
to do so would be to turn away from the victory over death and sin that Christ
accomplished through His cross and empty tomb.
It is also to repudiate the transforming power of the Holy Spirit poured
out at Pentecost, Whose fruits are “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” As St. Paul wrote, “Against such there is no
law. And those who
are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires.” (Gal. 5:22-24)
In
order to crucify our corruption and open the eyes of our souls to the brilliant
light of Christ in the midst of all the temptations that beset us, we must have
the dogged determination of soldiers, athletes, and farmers. St. Paul used those examples with St. Timothy
because they are all very demanding undertakings that require daily discipline,
sacrifice, and perseverance. No one can
succeed in those vocations by taking it easy, giving in to self-centered
desires, or giving up out of fear. He told Timothy to “Share in suffering as a
good soldier of Christ Jesus.” That is
not because it is somehow pleasing to God for us to suffer, but because living
a faithful Christian life requires us to struggle for the healing of our souls
and in the service of our neighbors, especially as we resist the temptations
that threaten to consume us. There will be
some pain involved, for we must take up our crosses in obedience to the way of
our Lord. Our faith requires pressing on
in faithfulness each day, regardless of the cost.
Today
we commemorate St. Joseph of Damascus, a priest who was martyred during anti-Christian
riots in 1860. In the midst of violent
attacks by mobs that killed 2,500 people, he jumped from rooftop to rooftop in
order to hear confessions and serve Communion to elderly and sick people who
could not leave their homes. He
recounted to them the lives of the martyrs in preparation for what was to
come. After the cathedral where
Christians had gathered was burned with those trapped inside perishing, St. Joseph
roamed the streets looking for others to whom he could minister. He consumed what remained of the Lord’s Body
and Blood before a mob hacked him to death with axes, after which his body was
dragged through the streets and thrown in the city dump.
No doubt, the
vicious persecutors felt powerful on that day, but they were actually the
weakest of all, enslaved to their passions and totally blind to the basic humanity
of their neighbors, not to mention to the merciful way of the Lord. Christ said, “The eye is the lamp of the
body. So, if your eye is sound, your
whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is evil, your whole body will
be full of darkness. If then the light
in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
The example of St. .Joseph of Damascus shines in brilliant contrast to
the darkened souls who rushed to murder him and so many others. He did not try to run away from certain death
or think only of himself or his family.
He “share[d] in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” as he
ministered as best he could to His people.
He, like all the martyrs, shines with light as an icon of the great
strength that the Lord provides to sustain us through even the greatest
challenges of life, even through death itself.
Most Christians
do not become martyrs in the sense of literally being killed for their
faith. Christ calls us all, however, to
die to our tendency to embrace the darkness of sin and passion instead of His
holy light. We may all do that in
response to the seemingly small challenges and temptations that we face
daily. For whether we acknowledge it or
not, we face every day of our lives a more subtle version of the test faced by
the martyrs. Namely, will we refuse to abandon
our Lord? As the Savior said, “No one can serve two
masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Christ tells us
here that worshipping money, wealth, and possessions is a form of idolatry that
turns us away from serving Him. No, that
is not a temptation only felt by extremely wealthy people, for He then says “do
not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor
about your body, what you shall put on.
Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?” We worship a false god whenever our souls
are so darkened that we no longer trust in the Lord’s mercy to sustain us
through life, but instead become obsessed with establishing and protecting
ourselves on our own terms and by our own methods. That is not a path to peace, but only to
worry and fear. As the Lord taught, “And
which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature?” He is the One Who has conquered death, but we
still worry as though everything were up to us, as though we could solve all our
problems and those of our families and the world. That is simply an illusion that appeals to us
because the eyes of our souls are not yet fully illumined with the light of Christ. And giving in to it leads only to idolatry,
anxiety, and disappointment.
Christ said, “[D]o
not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek
all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be yours as well.”
None of us can predict or control fully what will happen in the world,
our families, or our own lives. But we
do know that if we purify our hearts and souls with the dogged determination of
soldiers, athletes, and farmers, we will gain the spiritual clarity and
strength that are necessary to serve Christ through whatever challenges we and our
loved ones will face. We will avoid the
appealing temptation to surrender in weakness to our passions, anxieties, and
fears when we mindfully reject the thoughts and desires that encourage us to
place our commitment to anyone or anything before our commitment to the
Lord. When we look to St. Joseph of
Damascus and all the martyrs, we will remember that the path we follow is not
one of responding in kind to those who threaten us or being overwhelmed by fear,
but instead one of courageously seeing first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. That is how, even in the midst of all the
darkness that surrounds us, we may become radiant with the divine glory and
filled with holy light as a sign of the salvation of the world.
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