Stand Fast

A Reflection on the Second Reading for October 9th, 2022:
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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2 Timothy
2.8-13

Beloved: Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David — that is my Gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.

That we should possess the greatest gift to humanity – that is, to know, love and serve the Lord – but to be consistently persecuted for acting on this gift will likely be one of the greatest trials of our lives.

It seems the secular world generally will bear us learning about God and faith but having an actual relationship with our Father? Well, that seems a little “woo-woo,” they say.  Loving the Lord? Well, now you’ve overstepped. Serving Him? I guess you can do so on your own time – because you clearly need to feel better about yourself and your unimaginative life – but please don’t talk about it!

So, we are persecuted. My own experience ranges from polite but guarded disinterest to a lengthy verbal attack by an old friend. This latter was so shocking in the moment that all my best reasons and arguments for the faith quickly dissolved into ineffective and meandering rebuttals beginning with “yeah buts'' and “you don’t understands.” It was not the way I had imagined a discussion about my recent conversion would go on a soft summer night. But it was also a realization that my friend had no interest in dialogue, only in “winning.”

So I sat. I endured. Too overcome for fight or flight, I trusted in God and called on the Holy Spirit to help me remain in love and appear calm and unprovoked.

Oddly, looking back, as upsetting as this experience was, I have never felt more alive in my faith. I believe my friend could sense that, while he may have had a mountain of secular arguments against Jesus and faith of any kind, I would never deny Jesus Christ. That is my Gospel.

To borrow from 19th century theologian Henry Ward Beecher, “God does not ask whether you will endure life. That is not a choice. You must endure it. The only question is how.” 

And so I pray: Lord, I love you above all things. Help me to always stand fast in your promise and endure the trials and persecutions of this life. And please have mercy on my friend. Amen.


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Patty Viscount

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