Today’s readings remind me of an experience I had when I was young. I was in my Junior year of High School. For the mid-year vacations, my friends organized a trip to the beach. We were going to spend a whole weekend in the house of one of my friends, having a lot of fun. However, there was also a very important retreat I was invited to, which ended up being scheduled for that same weekend.
It goes beyond saying that I felt very torn. The weekend at the beach was one of those events that you simply cannot miss. Everyone was going to be there, and it was going to be awesome. You did not want to miss out on that for anything in the world.
The retreat was also a very important retreat, where I knew I was going to receive a lot, and which was part of a serious way of Christian formation that I had been following for years. By the grace of God, I decided to go to the retreat. I must say that I was a bit taken aback by the response of my “friends.” When I told them that I was going to the retreat instead of going on the “trip of the century”, some laughed at me in my face. Others straight out called me stupid, crazy and many other names for making such a senseless decision. Yes, I was, to some extent, persecuted for choosing God over the world.
Paul to Timothy
Indeed, remembering how I felt that day, I can say that I relate totally with what today’s first reading says: “In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” St. Paul’s words to Timothy are truly a description of the lot that awaits those who really want to follow the Lord and receive His life. Again, I saw it clearly in the reaction of my friends. The idea that I chose a retreat in which I could get closer to sharing in Christ’s life was totally foreign to them. They could not understand how I would choose Church, which for them was just something cultural and traditional, over something that would give me immediate pleasures and satisfactions.
Since they did not understand much about the possibility of sharing in Christ’s divine life and experiencing its peace and joy, my decision seemed stupid and old-fashioned, and they ridiculed and laughed at me. This has been the experience of those who have wanted to be Christians throughout the history of the Church. Those who know the truth of the law of God and the life that it transmits have always been persecuted, ridiculed and even killed for that. However, they have always experienced peace, consolation and the joy of being in the truth.
Indeed, as the Psalm says today: “O Lord, great peace have they who love your law.” It is true. I can tell you with all sincerity that even if I was persecuted and mocked, I experienced an immense peace, and going to the retreat was by far the best decision. To know the law of the Lord, and to experience it, certainly provides abundant peace.
What Jesus Experienced
But why is it that those who follow the Lord and want to conform to Him are persecuted? The answer is very simple: because that is exactly what Jesus Christ experienced in His life. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Kingdom of God, and to invite us all to enter this kingdom; and they persecuted Him, they insulted Him, they mocked Him, and they killed Him. We cannot expect any less.
However, we cannot forget that Christ, through His resurrection, transformed the value of all this, and where there was derision, persecution and death, He has brought integrity, freedom and life. Let us not be afraid to want to live religiously in Christ. Let us not be afraid to conform our lives to Him – worried that our families, or our friends, or our coworkers may persecute us. If the Lord gives us the life of His Spirit, we have nothing to fear! We will experience the peace of the risen Christ, and a foretaste of heaven on earth. Let us, therefore, ask the Lord to give us the grace to be witnesses to His life to all those around us. God bless you!
