Persevering in the faith

In today’s first reading, Acts 14: 19-28, we read further about the problems Paul encountered in his efforts to spread the Good News about Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.   Some “Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside of the city, supposing that he was dead.   …[When]the disciples gathered around him, he got up…[and] on the following day left with Barnabas for Derbe.  …[T]hey… proclaimed the good news to that city,…made considerable…disciples [of Jesus and then] returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, …[where] they strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in faith, saying, ‘It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.’”

Wow! What inspiration and instruction for us Christians today!  Living the Christian life has always involved obstacles to be overcome, misunderstandings to address, and, yes, persecutions, martyrdom, a dying and a rising with Christ to new life to be endured in faith.  Like Paul, to get up after being down, whether downed by others or by ourselves, we need other disciples, others persons living their faith in Christ, to help us up!  Getting up from whatever problem or tragedy we’ve encountered in being faithful to the Gospel, we, in turn, are called to “proclaim the good news,” make “considerable disciples,” and strengthen “the spirit of [other disciples].  That is what my mother and father have done for me, and, hopefully, for you as well. That is what Mother Frances, the Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother and many of my fellow religious have also done for me.  Who does that for you and for whom are you a strengthening companion in the faith?

Mother Frances Streitel: Her hopefulness and perseverance

Amalia Frances Rose Streitel aka Mother Frances Streitel, Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, and, as a Maria Stern Franciscan, known as Sister Angela.  Regarding the Marian Institute and its future,  Sister Angela  tells her superiors that her prayers and the prayers of the Sisters with whom she ministered at St. Elizabeth’s Home were that the will of God, not their own, be done.  The priest involved in assigning the administrative position of the Marian Institute to another person deeply regretted his action and could neither eat nor sleep, he was so upset over what he had done. He therefore reverse his decision.  Sister Angela’s response to her superior was: “Only the express command on your part, however, can let me again take up a matter which has been made so bitter for me.”   She herself says: “In spite of insomnia and lack of appetite, I am, God be praised, well and in good spirits. Never before have I felt as I do this time the power of sufferings borne for the love of God” (Walk in Love, p. 27).   St. Paul tells us that “…hardship develops perseverance, and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope….” (Romans 5: 4-5).  No doubt this is what Sister Angela was experiencing!  In what ways have you experienced the truth of St. Paul’s comment about hardship?

God's mercy and the strength of the human spirit

September 1, 2011: The sad news about Hurricane Irene abounds here in the Eastern States. The good news is that the flood waters are receding.  Thousands of businesses have sustained considerable losses and are wondering how they will survive. Just as God witnessed the dire straits of the Israelites in Egypt and called upon someone to take up the task of leading them out of a destitute situation, so, too, God is sending persons to help. God cares as much today for persons devastated by nature’s fury as He cared for the Israelites oppressed by Pharaoh’s cruelty. God weeps, I believe, with those who weep and is stirring up the hearts of neighbors across the country to reach out in compassion to provide in whatever ways possible.

As we deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, today’s Scriptures are consoling. They tell the story of Peter being asked to cast his net into the deep. He objects, saying “Lord, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing,”  but if you say so, we will try again. People’s nets are not only empty, they are ripped apart by Hurricane Irene--that for which families worked hard all their life has been snatched from them .  What they “caught” over time is gone, swept away in the flood waters. “Try again! Start over, find another way”—“cast into the deep” are probably not happy thoughts right now! 

 In times of disasters like this one, the only thing most people have to cling to is their faith in a caring, merciful  God.  That was true of my parents, who, as farmers, often struggled to make ends. That was certainly true when bills piled up as cancer ravaged my mother’s life and stole it from her at age 50, leaving four elementary-grade children without a mom.  Hours before she died, my mother writes to me: “When I get out of here (Sacred Heart Hospital in Tomahawk, WI), I am going to get a job so we can make ends meet.” In the face of death itself, she did not give up hope. Many people whose livelihood has been destroyed by Hurricane Irene are saying:  “We will survive. We will find a way. It may be tough for a while but we will come out of this.”  What strength rises within the depth of one’s being, where the human spirit meets the Spirit and the power of God.  What inspiration people with faith and trust are to a world marred by tragedies.