March 12 & 13, 2016+ JMJ +
5th Sunday of Lent, Year C
The Hardships
A great public speaker comes to town. You hit it off with him and have some great conversations while he is here. You and some others read his books and really enjoy them. Not long afterwards you hear on the news that he has been put in prison! While visiting another state, he was accused of charges you know are false, and for which no evidence has emerged. One of your friends is able to take time off work, and so you all send a care package with that friend to deliver to the speaker in prison. Soon you hear that your friend paid a visit to the prison, but is now in the emergency room at the point of death! You try calling but none of you can get word about the situation. Finally, your friend returns, back to full health, and he has a message for all of you from that wonderful speaker.
This situation sounds extraordinary, but these events are the background for St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. St. Paul is that great speaker, an Apostle, who preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of Philippi, a city in Macedonia. St. Paul was later imprisoned, either at Ephesus or Rome itself under false charges. The friend with the care package is Epaphroditus, whom the Philippians sent, and who almost died of illness. He returned, however, with the Letter to the Philippians, from which we read today.
Knowing all that, think how much power the words of St. Paul have: “I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things” (Philippians 3:8). He certainly has. He is in prison! He has lost his freedom, his property, and his way of life. How can he preach his message now? How can his life have any meaning or purpose?
Here is the great part: St. Paul still completes his mission. He preaches to the prison guards! Nearby Christians use him as a great example of courageous faith. “I want you to know,” he says earlier in the letter, “that my situation has turned out rather to advance the gospel” (1:12). Prison bars do not slow this Apostle down!
St. Paul even has a new insight to share due to his imprisonment: “I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ” (3:8-9). St. Paul has realized that the one goal of his life is to be worthy of heaven, to be worthy of eternal life in Jesus. He knows also that he cannot make himself worthy. Only surrendering to Christ in faith will make him fit for heaven and ultimately for being resurrected unto eternal life. What does surrendering to Christ in faith mean? It means the “sharing of his sufferings (3:10). It means accepting the setbacks and hardships of life—like being falsely imprisoned—as a necessary part of God’s plan for him.
And even St. Paul does not presume that he is going to heaven or is already saved. “It is not that I have already taken hold of it,” he says, “but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it” (3:12). Life and faith are a process, not a one-time event. Accepting the hardships that come our way is a continuous activity. Faith is a continuous relationship with Jesus Christ in the community of his Catholic Church. The road to heaven and eternal life is difficult. As Jesus himself said, “How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14).
Thankfully, Christ himself has shown us the way, and St. Paul has reminded us about it. The one goal of our lives is to be worthy of heaven, to be worthy of eternal life in Jesus. The way we become worthy is through sharing Christ’s sufferings. That means we accept the hardships of lifeas a necessary part of God’s plan for us. When suffering comes our way, we make it into an offering to God by praying for our needs and the needs of the world.
This knowledge is the heart of Lent. Bearing sufferings for a greater purpose is the heart of the Christian life. St. Paul put up with rejection, torture, and imprisonment for the Gospel, and his mission and his life flourished as a result. When we put up with the hardships we face in life, not complaining, not cursing our enemies, not seeking relief in sin—when we make them an offering to God by praying for our needs and the needs of the world—only then will our mission and our lives flourish as a result.
Rev. Eric Culler