Awaiting the Crown of Life (Wednesday, Week 34, Year 2)

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The gospel acclamation says “Even if you have to die, remain faithful and I will give you the crown of life” – Rev. 2:10. The gospel (cf. Luke 21:12-19) makes it more frightening: “You will be delivered up by parents and brothers and sisters and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. This will be time for you to bear testimony”.

The readings of this period give us some truth about the Christian life: the reality of persecution. Many of us live in denial: that as a Christian, we do not have to suffer. That is a big lie! Suffering, persecution and challenges are part and parcel of Christian life. But it won’t end there: there will be glorification; there will be joy at last. As Christians, we must face persecutions not just during the last days, but all through our lives. Persecution can either be bloody or come in different forms. The Book of Revelation was compiled during the bloodiest times of the Church’s history when Christians were hunted and slaughtered like chickens in the ancient Roman Empire. It was written to help them understand and accept the painful demands of their state and to console them to remain faithful until the end for their glorification.  

When persecution comes in the form of physical death, that is when it becomes more serious and scarier. And that is when a lot of people back out and yield to the demands of the persecutor. During those times when the Church went through terrible tortures and persecutions, many Christians lapsed into idolatry not because they were tired of being Christians but because their lives were in serious danger. These days, those of us who are in this part of the world are really lucky that we are not encountering bloody persecutions as others went through in the past and as others are going through at present. I am just imagining what would happen if some people fully armed invade the Church or family house or place of work or wherever we are at present, and demand that each of us should either publicly or privately deny our faith or else we would lose our heads. I wonder how many of us would be able to stand against such threat! That will be a raw period for us to prove our much touted fidelity. But we do not have to wait for direct, physical or bloody attacks on account of our faith before we can prove our fidelity to Christ.   

Day in day out, we are presented with “little-little” choices: this should be done, this should not be done – all because of our faith in Jesus. We have a substance in us which should shine forth, and that is our faith. The raw gold has something in it which should shine forth. But it cannot shine until it has gone through fire. An unpolished substance has that capacity to shine forth. But it won’t shine until it has been polished, until some friction is applied. Our faith can only shine out in the face of persecution, in the face of those daily choices that we have to make. It is at those moments that our faith in God is tested; those are the moments we show what we consider as our values, the moments we show where our priority lies. Those are the moments we prove our much touted fidelity.

As a worker, I may have to choose between carting away a huge amount of money given as a bribe AND remaining faithful to Christ. As a young lady, I may have to choose between keeping my body undefiled for the sake of Christ AND giving in to defilement and prostitution because of the so-called pressures from friends and hardship. As a priest or religious, I have to choose between remaining faithful to my vows AND dancing to the tunes of the world just to show that I belong. These are the moments in which our faith in God is tested; these are the moments we show what we consider as our values, the moments we show where our priority lies.

Let us endure and strongly believe Christ who has told us that by our endurance, we will gain our lives!    


      


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