Resist, endure, and win

In today’s Gospel reading, Christ taught us all about fortitude  the courage and patient endurance of trouble, pains, and persecution. By His own life, Christ role-modelled for us the HOW: Resist, Endure, and Win. All this and more are doable because of God’s unconditional love for us. (From today’s Gospel reading, Lk. 21: 5-19)

RESIST. A major persecution that the human Christ resisted was the triple temptation inflicted by Satan in the desert. After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, you can just imagine how hungry Jesus must have been. It was at this point that Satan appeared to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to turn into bread.” Jesus immediately replied, “Scripture has it: ‘Not on bread alone is man to live, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Satan then led Him to the city, to the parapet of the temple, where Satan dared Him to jump and see if angels would save Him. Again, Jesus resisted. “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Finally, Satan displayed before Him the kingdoms of this world in all their magnificence. Satan declared: “All these will I bestow on you if you prostrate yourself in homage before me.” Jesus answered with finality: “You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you adore” (Mt. 4: 1-11). Throughout his life, Jesus led a simple life and lovingly shared Himself and what He had with God’s people. He stressed the temporality of worldly possessions, including the temple of worship which was “adorned with costly stones.” The time will come “when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down” (Lk. 21: 5-6).

For many centuries after Christ, our institutional Church capitulated to medieval pomposity as a way of worshipping God. Super-expensive churches, cathedrals, and church ornaments in the midst of poverty among God’s people was passed on from generation to generation. In more recent times, a wake-up call was promulgated by our Church through the Encyclical on Social Concerns (1987). In part, it declared: “Faced by cases of need, one cannot ignore them in favor of superfluous church ornaments and costly furnishings for divine worship; on the contrary it could be obligatory to sell these goods in order to provide food, drink, clothing and shelter for those who lack these things” (#31). But starting from the Vatican all the way to our own country, are we implementing this in action, or are they just pious words on paper? A recent super-giant statue of Christ the King with a golden crown was recently built in Poland, costing $1.4 million or P60,000,000. Sixty million pesos, the very opposite of the original, historical Christ! The human Jesus led the way by His own life, lifestyle, and teachings. How long will it take us to follow Him all the way!

Coming down to each one of us personally, what are the forms of “persecution” that we experience in these our times? For one, it is the curse of hungering for more. More and more money, material comforts, the latest and more expensive gadgets and products of technology. Such is the paradoxical persecution of endless consumerism and materialism. The mega malls are becoming bigger and bigger, and more and more numerous. We are continually seduced to be addicted to them, and yet we know deep in our hearts that they are not what really matters in our life. We must learn to discern the difference between human needs and worldly attachments, and courageously resist the latter. A habitual awareness of God’s presence as my constant companion empowers me to resist.

ENDURE. The human Christ endured all the pains, troubles, and problems that were the price of resisting worldly attachments as well as those that are simply a part of human life. Like the pain of being rejected by the very people that He came to love and save. What must it have been really like to be crowned with thorns in ridicule, to carry that humiliating cross, and be crucified like a criminal? What might be the human equivalent of all this today in our own lives?

Here is an employee who is unjustly dismissed from his job because he refused to cooperate with the company’s practice of graft and corruption. What about this pretty girl who loves her boyfriend dearly, but he broke off with her because she refused to have premarital sex with him. These are just a couple among countless God-given opportunities of human endurance that leads to victory.

WIN. “By your perseverance, you will secure your lives” (v. 19). When everything is said and done, the only attachment that matters is my attachment to God, and His attachment to me. I belong totally to Him, my Creator. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine” (Is. 43:1). In my directions for the future, through all the situations that I need to resist and endure, I must learn to be habitually aware of the Lord’s inner voice lovingly and constantly whispering to me: You are Mine. YOU ARE MINE!