Bear your share of hardship for the gospel

Transfiguration by James Janknegt

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

(Scriptures for today's Mass)

Audio for homily



Hard times… none of us escapes them.

Loss, disappointment, grief, injustice, deprivation, abandonment:
in one way or another we all experience hardship.

St. Paul was no stranger to this, nor was Timothy to whom he wrote:
“Bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.”

Hardship…. for the gospel:
hard times that come from fidelity to the gospel of Jesus:
now there’s something to think about…

Of course, everyone has difficulties
whether they believe in the gospel or not:
everyone has hard times.

But only believers, only followers of Jesus,
only Christians can possibly bear hardship for the gospel’s sake.

Since it’s Lent, we should be careful
not to mistake our Lenten sacrifices for gospel hardship.
When we get to heaven’s door and Jesus asks,
“Did YOU bear your share of hardship for fidelity to my word?”
I doubt he’ll be impressed if the best we can offer
is the year we gave up chocolate for Lent!

But Lent is a good season for asking...

Just what is hardship for the gospel?

How do I carry the gospel message in my daily life?

What about my fidelity to the gospel
marks my life as distinctively Christian?

How does my faithfulness to God’s word set me apart as a Christian
in a culture as secularized as our own?

How does my fidelity to the justice the gospel demands
show itself at work? in my business dealings? in my politics?
in my outreach to the poor?

How does my faithfulness to the Lord’s word shape
my family life? my social life? my life at school? 
in my neighborhood? my town? my parish?

In short: is there anything in my life that identifies me
as a follower of Christ and his gospel?
Or do I fade easily into a cultural landscape
that largely ignores or even rejects that very gospel?

These questions make giving up desserts for Lent look like, well:
a piece o’ cake!

We might even find it a hardship simply to consider those questions…
But that’s exactly what Paul calls us to do - and more than that!

Paul tells us that God, “saved us and called us to a holy life,”
not in some ethereal way but rather in the practical, nitty-gritty
of inviting the gospel deeply enough into our daily lives
that we experience it not only as a comfort
but also as a hardship…

This isn’t easy, this is tough stuff!

The gospel never fails to challenge us, to trouble us,
confronting our illusions about ourselves*
and calling us to greater spiritual depth
and greater spiritual heights.

Jesus took his friends to the top of a high mountain
and was transfigured before them.
He wanted to give them a glimpse of his glory
to prepare them to witness the hardship he would bear,
his suffering and death,
for the sake of the gospel he preached.

Might this be the question for us in the scriptures today
and in this Lenten season:
“What must I be willing to sacrifice
that I might live the gospel more faithfully?

Plenty of work there for Lent – even for a lifetime.
But Paul also promised that God gives us the grace, the strength,
to confront these questions,
beginning right here, at the altar.

At this table Jesus nourishes and strengthens us with his Word
and with his Body and Blood,
the sacrifice, the hardship he bore for us on the Cross.

And he invites us to come to his altar,
to eat and drink this holy food, given to make us strong
that we might bear our share of hardship for the gospel.


*See this post on Mark Searle in Assembly, Vol. 8, no. 3


 
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