A Concord Pastor Comments: NIGHT PRAYER: Tuesday 7/25

From today's Mass:

Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

2 Cor 4:7-15

Sometimes we are surprised that good people suffer, thinking, perhaps, that faithfulness to the Lord and his Word should somehow shield us from life's difficulties. But if Jesus and his Mother, Mary and all the others close to him weren't spared human suffering - should we expect our lot to be different?

The "treasure" we hold in the fragile, earthen vessels of our lives is the presence of Jesus. If we follow in his footsteps, that path will lead us to the Cross - and if we stand at the foot of the Cross, the Lord will lead us to new life in him. And so we pray for the faith to say:

We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

Do you remember the song, Earthen Vessels? Here's the refrain: