Today, I’m going to reflect on the 2nd Reading (Hebrews 12: 1-4*) where the author is using an example from athletics to exhort his readers to keep running the race. It’s a theme that Paul uses as well. E.g., in 1 Cor 9 he says that athletes deny themselves all sorts of things in order to win a crown of leaves; we’re running to win a crown of eternal life!
It’s the same idea here in Hebrews. To give some context, I’m going to go back to chapter 10 of Hebrews where he recalls how his audience has already suffered persecution. He says,
At times you were publicly exposed to insult and trial; … You even joined in the sufferings of those who were in prison and joyfully assented to the confiscation of your goods, knowing that you had better and more permanent possessions. Do not then surrender your confidence; it will have great reward. You need patience to do God’s will and receive what he has promised.
Then, in chapter 11 he recalls all the great heroes of the Old Testament, many of whom were persecuted and even put to death. And now they’re in heaven cheering us on. It’s like my friend Rob Fatzinger, who does these really long-distance races, tells me that sometimes a person will be struggling to finish, and someone who has already finished will go back and encourage him and bring him home. That’s what the saints are doing. They’re saying, come on, you can do this, we were just like you, you can be like us. The author is exhorting us to persevere even in the face of persecution and become saints.
Now, I think the temptation for many of us in 21st century America is to say, why? This doesn’t sound like fun. Isn’t it enough that we stay out of mortal sin? We die; we go to Purgatory and we’re good.
So, I’d like to share 3 thoughts on why we should strive for sainthood.
The first I’m getting from my hero Ralph Martin. He makes the very logical point that if we aim for Purgatory, and we fall short, it’s not good. Aim for heaven, and then if we fall short, thanks be to God for Purgatory. The Catechism explains Purgatory the same way. It says,
1030. All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
It assumes we’re aiming for heaven. So that’s the first.
The second is something I learned many years ago from Fr. Ray Ryland who was the chaplain at Catholic Answers for many years. I’m going to try to explain this in my own simple words. You may have heard the expression, “in heaven, everyone’s cup is full; we have different size cups, but whatever it is it’ll be full.” I wanted to know what exactly is the cup and I discussed this with my son Fr. Chris to make sure I wouldn’t be preaching heresy. The cup is our soul, but to help think about our cup filling up and being full, think of it is our capacity for love, our capacity to give and receive love. It’s broader than that. For example, it would include our capacity for joy, for wonder, for beauty, all these capabilities of the soul, but for this reflection, I’m going to focus on our capacity for love. Now here’s the key point, our capacity for love can grow while we are here on earth but once we die, it’s fixed. Whatever capacity we’ve attained at the time of our death is fixed for all eternity.
It’s during our earthly life that we can grow. This is why for example our crosses are so essential. It is precisely in our loving embrace of our crosses that our capacity for love grows. Our crosses are all the experiences that are contrary to our desires. To embrace the cross is to die to ourselves and willingly and lovingly accept the difficulty or hardship we experience. Initially we don’t want crosses. I remember hearing of a woman who was complaining to Mother Teresa about her suffering and how difficult it was, and Mother said to her, that’s Jesus kissing you, and she said tell him to stop kissing me. But as our love for God grows, our desire to give ourselves to Him grows and we can begin to embrace our crosses.
Imagine if we were always comfortable and always experienced what we desire. How could our capacity for love grow? And it’s not just the crosses; every act of love, every act of service, every time we die to ourselves for the sake of another, we increase our capacity for love. In all of this, I’m assuming God’s grace is at work because it’s His grace that causes the increase, but our acts are the occasion for His grace. So, we want to embrace every opportunity that comes our way to grow and increase our capacity for love because this is it; we get one life and when it’s over, we’re done.
The third reason is this, the more our friendship and intimacy with Jesus grows, the more He will give in response to our prayers. James 5:16 (NAB), “the fervent petition of a holy man is powerful.”
This became the motivation for St. Teresa of Avila and her reform of Carmel. When she first started to set up reformed convents, her main goal was to create a space for intimate union with God. Since childhood her desire was to see God. That was her original motive. But she lived at the time of the Reformation, and as she heard about all the people leaving the Church she was devastated, and she wanted to do everything possible to save souls.
The Carmelite priest, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, described her goal this way: “No one can doubt that a contemplative person, as a friend of God, has power over his heart; Saint Teresa aimed at raising an army of contemplatives to aid the Church.”1 It was all about souls.
Now I’m willing to bet that every person here has a loved one who has either left the Church or who is struggling with the faith, and we want to do everything we can to help the person come to faith. The greater our friendship with Jesus, the more powerful will be our prayers for our loved ones, which is exactly what Jesus wants.
So, brothers and sisters, aim for heaven. Go for all the love and joy that God has prepared for you from all eternity. Let us embrace every opportunity that comes our way to increase our capacity for love, and as good friends of Jesus, pray fervently for those who don’t know Him, that they will believe.
God bless you all!
*Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him
he endured the cross, despising its shame,
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,
in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
In your struggle against sin
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
- “The Power of Prayer”, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D., p. 13 ↩︎
Pain of Grace 