“Persevere in Your Faith” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Persevere in Your Faith” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God almighty.  Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations.  Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name?   For you alone are holy.  All the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Revelation 15:3b-4)

 

“By your perseverance, you will secure your lives.” (Luke 21:19)

 

Piety

Agnus Dei,   Michael W. Smith

Alleluia
Holy
Holy are You, Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb

 

Study

As our calendar year draws to a close, the leaves are falling, and the trees growing bare.  Winter is on its way.  Perhaps this year, summer has long departed our souls with the anticipation of another, more virulent wave of COVID-19 sweeping across the land.  People will lose more jobs.  More businesses will shutter, I fear.  More time will have to be spent apart from family and friends, difficult at any time but incredibly hard around the holidays. 

The Church’s liturgical year is coming to an end as well.  This coming Sunday, we will leave Ordinary Time behind and enter into Advent and another year’s cycle of Scripture readings.  Some find the lessons during these final weeks of Ordinary Time to be frightening.  The messages directed initially to the early Christians are words of hope because persecutions frightened them.  And they can be words of great hope for us as well during these difficult times.

In John’s fantastic vision of the scene in heaven before the throne of God, the faithful and the martyrs sing the songs of Moses and the Lamb, extolling the great works of the Lord and the holiness of God’s very Being. I love music, and I can easily imagine Michael W. Smith’s Agnus Dei being sung over and over by God’s people before that throne.  As much as I love my life on earth, I know it’s not forever, and the vision John shares of worship in heaven far surpasses anything I know here.   It’s something to look forward to, not something to fear.

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t mince words.  Being a follower won’t be easy, he says. There will always be those against us because of our faith.  To those listening, Jesus speaks words of hope and comfort.   Here in northern Virginia, there isn’t a whole lot of persecution of Christians going on.  There’s more indifference toward us than anything else.  But we are experiencing troubles of a different sort. – a pandemic, serious illness, lost lives, business closures, jobs lost, poverty, and growing hunger.  Jesus’ last word in today’s Gospel applies to us under these conditions as well.  Remain in him, persevere in faith amid troubles, and secure your life forever.  We, too, will then one day find ourselves in good company, praising God before God’s throne in heaven.

Action

So, what does keeping faith mean in everyday life?  It means, first of all, trusting that no matter what occurs, Jesus stands with us.  True faith goes beyond that, however.  It also means caring for everyone and everything Jesus loves.  Right now, there are increasing numbers of our brothers and sisters whose shelves are bare and who require assistance as a result of fallout from COVID-19. If you are searching for a place to donate, google food pantries near me.  I just tried that, and a number of them popped up.  You could start with your parish because many parishes have their food programs.  Help make it a happy Thanksgiving for our friends and neighbors in need.