Today is the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, 19 years ago. It is also Father John’s anniversary of thirty-six years. I find our Liturgy today to be particularly inspirational on this anniversary day. Today’s Liturgy of the Word represents a kind of wrap-up to the lives of St. Paul and Jesus, respectively. They both have completed the mission for which they had been sent, and both are now giving the mission back to God who would continue it as He alone saw fit. Paul’s mission had been one of conversion, beginning with his own, and then reaching out to the Gentiles he met traveling far and wide. Now he did not know what would happen to him, only that the Holy Spirit kept telling him it was to be an end filled with hardship, from which Paul refused to shrink.
Jesus, one with the Father from the beginning, had come from the Father and was now going back to the Father. He brought God’s love to bear on the aberrations of sin and death and had drawn disciples into the mission to continue the work. It could not continue unless he returned to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit upon them. Doing that has brought the Gospel into every nation and into the lives of millions. He too faced an end filled with hardship, from which he refused to shrink.
The same could be said for Saint Charles Lwanga and his twenty-two companions, young people killed by the Bagandan ruler Mwanga, who insisted they give in to his immoral demands or face death. And they did face it, they refused to shrink from it, so we celebrate their martyrdom today. The inspiration of these holy ones, and of our Lord, gives us the strength to face the difficult times in our own lives. Witnessing to what is right and good is often inconvenient, facing hardship is always frightening, and for those like Saint Charles and Jesus’ disciples, sometimes dangerous. But that is what disciples do. That is our ministry, the work to which we have all been called.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
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