Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
I do not say this flippantly, especially given the concerns that weigh on all of our hearts this week. I say this, as I’m sure the saintly pontiff did, with St. Paul’s epistle the Romans in mind, as we heard today: “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” We don’t know what the future holds, but we do not need to be afraid, anymore than St. Paul was afraid; anymore than Pope St. John Paul II was afraid.
This does not mean that things would go easily. St. Paul would eventually go to Rome and would be beheaded there simply for his faith in Jesus Christ. Before that he had people betray him, abandon him, and he would get shipwrecked on his way to Rome. Pope St. John Paul II would face head-on the communist government of the USSR. He would be shot by an assassin on the feast of our Lady of Fatima in 1981. While his mind remained sharp, his body would betray him until he couldn’t walk on his own and his speech was slightly less than a mumble. Both St. Paul and the Successor of St. Peter would experience suffering. But in any suffering they would cry out to their heavenly Father who would sustain them and help them to be a martyr, a witness, whether by the shedding of their blood or by the witness of patient suffering.
Do we trust God to carry us through whatever may come next? Are we children who belong in the Father’s house? Or are we simply hired servants who come and go as it suits us? Do we have confidence that any suffering, especially that which is unjust, will lead to our glorification? Or are we afraid of the unknown and afraid of where the Father may lead us to go.
Pope St. John Paul II reflected on being led somewhere strange in that same Mass. He said:
The Lord addressed [Peter] with these words: “…when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands and somebody else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go’.
Peter came to Rome!
…Perhaps the fisherman of Galilee did not want to come here. Perhaps he would have preferred to stay there, on the shores of the Lake of Genesareth, with his boats and his nets. But guided by the Lord, obedient to his inspiration, he came here!
According to an ancient tradition…, Peter wanted to leave Rome during Nero’s persecution. But the Lord intervened: he went to meet him. Peter spoke to him and asked, “Quo vadis, Domine?”–“Where are you going, Lord?” And the Lord answered him at once: “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.” Peter went back to Rome and stayed here until his crucifixion.
No doubt, Peter had reasons for wanting to flee Rome. Think of the great work that Peter could have done if he escaped the persecution and hid in Italy, or maybe traveled to Spain like some have guessed St. Paul did for a time. People were healed merely by the shadow of St. Peter, the Acts of the Apostles tells us. And thousands converted by his preaching at Pentecost. But that was not how Christ called Peter. Christ did not call Peter to fear, but to trust in the will of the Father, even though that will included his crucifixion.
God will never abandon us. He has pledged Himself to us as our Father, our Abba, through holy Baptism. No matter what we do, He will be there for us. But will we stay loyal to Him? When the going gets tough, will we go away? Will we let Christ be crucified a second time because we give into fear and into our own wisdom? Or will we be like Peter and stay in Rome, even when it means persecution and suffering?
I often don’t understand God’s ways. I don’t know why Christ allows this, but stops that. There are moments where I think I can see His hand and the trajectory He has, but more often I simply have to make an act of faith that, as St. Paul said, all things will work for the good of those who love God. But when tempted to run for the hills because things have gotten too tough, or because it would be easier to do something else, the words of St. Peter in John chapter six always pop up in my mind: “‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’” There is nowhere else to go for eternal life. Do not be afraid. Stay with Christ. And, in the words of Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
