Be persistent when it=s convenient and inconvenient. The words addressed by Paul to Timothy. We live in a society that finds it difficult to persevere. It wants fast foods, immediate satisfaction, faster and faster responses on computers, and especially when it comes to losing weight we=ve got to have something that does the job quickly and as a result we have one wave after another of different kind of weight solutions and people go after them. So their belt goes out and in continuously as a kind of normal rhythm of their lives. I wonder how much they spend on clothes.

        Yet I think any human being with any common sense knows that perseverence is absolutely necessary in our life. Just in ordinary things. You=re not going to persevere in marriage if don=t struggle through difficult times, you=re not going to become a good musician if you don=t practice and persevere at it. You=re not going to become a very good student if you don=t crack those books faithfully, etc. Despite these awarenesses we still have difficulty persevering. So we need to look at these texts and reflect on them so that we in turn may look at how we are persevering in convenient times and inconvenient times.

        In the first text we see that the enemies of Israel are attacking them. They give the response of defense but hidden behind the defense is the powerful intercessory prayer of Moses. Moses is getting weary of the intercession. But he can=t because they prayed with their hands raised, he=s getting weary and he can=t hold them up anymore so he has Aaron and Hur hold them up for him. One of the first things we see that perseverence requires is that we can overcome our weariness. But the hidden thing in this particular passage is that Moses is not carrying the burden alone. He=s humble enough to ask Aaron and Hur to be with him and to help him. As a result he is able to fulfill his mission. Another thing we can see from this passage is sometimes you and I are called to persevere with another person=s burdens. And that=s precisely where we need to persevere. So for instance if Fr. Pat was visiting one of his parishioners that he happened to be driving by and it turned out to be Tony and his wife Marie. His wife Marie after five children had a disease where she was confined to a wheelchair all the time and Tony took tremendous care of her all the time, year in and year out. When Fr. Pat went and visited them they had a nice talk and as they were walking to the car he told Tony, AI really am edified by the beautiful way you take care of your wife.@ Tony said, A You know I love my wife more than ever. I=m simply doing what you said in one of your homilies. To take up my cross and follow Jesus.@ So there=s a person who is faithful and persistent and persevering in carrying the burden of another.

        In terms of community how many things in the community you consider the school as part of what you are to support? Or the abbey? Or others in the community? It=s part of our call, our perseverence.

        Then in the second reading we have Timothy being advised by a wise leader, Paul, who tells him that yes it=s tough to preach the word of God and sometimes you get opposition, and sometimes people don=t pay attention, you don=t know where these sermons are going, so stick in there and keep at it, in season and out of season. When things are easy to do and when they=re not so easy to do.

        Then the gospel is rather powerful. Here=s a woman who=s already a problem in a patriarchal society. Secondly, she=s a widow which means she has nobody to help defend her in the public domain and she has an unjust judge besides. She=s feisty and rather effective. So much so, he=s afraid, if the text is translated properly, she=d punch him in the eye. That=s what the text really says. So she=s a feisty woman. But a good feisty woman.

        Where are the obstacles in our life in terms of where do we quit? You might not think that this is that important but the fact is perseverence here means that you follow the Lord in season and out of season. In times of convenience and inconvenience. The human race is very strange group of people. How many Catholics as they become more wealthy they quit practicing the faith. When things are convenient and everything is going nice. Why it=s bye-bye Jesus? Or you send a monk to go study, he gets his degrees, bye-bye monastery. Talk to the Camaldenese in California they=ve lost many men. They get permission to go study and they study then thank you, bye-bye. In convenient times we have a tendency when things are going well we forget about God.

        What about when things are going bad? Remember the text of scripture, ASon, though he was, he learned obedience through suffering.@ Here=s the Son of God, doesn=t need too much encouragement to be faithful yet He learns obedience through suffering. Which means in difficult times he was faithful and not just faithful but tenacious in doing the Father=s will. When he was most oppressed, during the passion, he did the most effective thing in the world, he redeemed us.

        We need to look at how we are persevering in convenient times and inconvenient times and especially if we would look at the Rule and go read slowly chapter 58 talking about bringing a novice into the community and pay attention to what it says about persevering. Why you=re here. Or take the end of the prologue in which the text says that we should be faithful or we should persevere in the teachings of Christ and by sharing in his passion we by our suffering and thereby sharing in his passion, we would also share in his kingdom.

        Now this is a very important dimension of our life because it=s not just for us. When we persevere in season and out of season, then we win graces for others and this is the other side of that intercessory prayer that we see in Moses. Remember as a monastery we are the intercessors for the church and the world and therefore our world which needs so many things especially peace we are the responsible persons who must persevere in prayer for the peace of the world.

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