Hope Does Not Disappoint
“Not only that, we even boast of our afflictions, knowing
that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven
character, hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been
poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: "Go
into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever
believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be
condemned. Mark 16:15-16
Piety
Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr,
may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and every other
illness: In the name of the Father, and
of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Study
Popular piety frequently construes setbacks, troubles, and
illness as punishment for sin. Instead, Paul assures believers that God’s
justifying action in Jesus Christ is a declaration of peace. The sign of that:
Christ’s crucifixion. Through this singular act, God displays His initiative in
marking all humanity for unimpeded access into His divine presence for
eternity.
While God offers this freely, our reconciliation shares God’s
pardon of the entire human race. Through faith, we benefit personally
from this pardon. That is what Paul
means with the term “justified by faith.” (5:1)
God’s ultimate aim is to liberate us from the temptations we
face daily in our usual pre-Christian self (ego). Our freedom will not find fulfillment until
the future state of our death and resurrection. The present moment is our
struggle, but we have an eternal hope that the battle has an end.
Because this fullness of salvation belongs to the future, Paul
calls it the Christian hope. Paul’s Greek term for hope does not,
however, suggest a note of uncertainty, to the effect: “I wonder whether God
really means it.” God means it. We do not have to wonder, like what will I
get for my birthday?
“Thanks to God’s promise in the
gospel, we can be filled with the expectation and anticipation for the guaranteed
climactic gift of unalloyed commitment in the Holy Spirit to the performance of
the will of God.” (emphasis added)[i]
Action
In the end, our illnesses, pains, and persecutions teach us
to be patient and strengthen our ultimate hope.
All along our path of faith, there are little reinforcing gifts that God
offers to us to help out and strengthen us on the journey. Today reminds me of one such offering that I
learned about in third-grade Catechism class on dreary, overcast, cold February
3, 1968.
At St. Mary’s parish in New Monmouth, NJ, the public-school
students (like me) always had laywomen or nuns for these Saturday morning
classes. Watch out if a priest showed up.
I thought that meant someone was in trouble with a capital T. I, for
one had a distinct fear (it was not yet awe) of the black-cassocked priests
when encountered without the color of joyful Sunday vestments.
In strode Father Charles Kelley (don’t even ask how I
remember his name but perhaps the latent fear crystallized the embedded memory)
carrying nothing but his purple stole and two unlit candles to give us a lesson
in St. Blaise[ii]
and bless our throats. For a
second-grader, this appeared to be a Catholic flu vaccine to protect us from
the common cold during the winter.
This annual blessing of throats[iii]
is a traditional sign of the struggle against illness in the life of the
Christian. We know very little about his life, so I have to wonder how we
connect our throats to his life? Like St. Luke, Blaise was a physician before
becoming a bishop. His cult spread throughout the entire Church in the Middle
Ages because he was reputed to have miraculously cured a little boy who nearly
died because of a fishbone in his throat (before “Saint” Heimlich invented his
maneuver). From the eighth century onward, the faithful invoke St. Blaise on behalf
of the sick, especially those afflicted with illnesses of the throat.
Getting your throat blessed today?
[ii]
In 14 years of blogging, Your Daily Tripod (www.yourdailytripod.blogspot.com)
has never mentioned St. Blaise. We
mentioned Cardinal Blaise Cupich. We quoted Blaise Pascal just last week.
However, never once (according to a Google search of the site) did we ever
address how the beeswax blessed on Candlemas was used the next day. Now, we
have.
[iii]Fortunately, every time my throat has been blessed, the candles were not
lit. So the ceremony had little chance
to create a homonym of today’s featured saint.
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