YOU CAN'T QUIT! - Fr. Mark Goring, CC

our lord jesus knew what kind of death he was to die he knew that he came for this hour and he accepted the will of the father it says in hebrews although he was the son he learned obedience through what he suffered our lord jesus suffered and so to each one of us we all have our sufferings amen on a daily basis you know some days hardly any suffering some some of you you carry tremendously heavy crosses life is extremely difficult for you you have a lot of suffering a lot of us generally life is pretty good and hopefully we give thanks to the lord and we're filled with gratitude but we still have our daily crosses now as christians we have to have a christian understanding and perspective on suffering for us suffering is not meaningless and one of the reasons that suffering has a meaning is because our lord jesus christ he himself suffered he suffered and he's the model he's the one we follow jesus said follow me eventually that leads to the way of the cross which by the way the stations of the cross powerful powerful devotion i encourage you fall in love with the stations of the cross go to the stations of the cross often now i'm a little spoilt and you have every reason to be jealous i live next to a church i can walk in here anytime and i can gaze upon the beautiful stations of the cross i can flick the light on you see how they're all lit up and when i come and you know look at the stations of the cross i don't i don't say too many vocal prayers i just gaze upon them open my heart to the mystery and it gives me fortitude sometimes i don't get much it seems you know it's mysterious you know but oftentimes i gaze and it strengthens me we should fall in love with the passion in the death of our lord jesus christ it was saint faustina who discovered and she suffered tremendously at many levels she discovered she says you know when i'm suffering if i meditate on the lord jesus's sufferings all of a sudden my sufferings aren't that bad anymore and there's a number of mystics who've mentioned that when we gaze upon christ's wounds somehow our own the weight of our own cross it seems to lighten there seems almost to be a sweetness to our suffering because it has meaning we're conformed to christ we're united with him we're suffering with him he's the pattern our lord jesus he suffered he suffered tremendous tremendous anguish he was scourged and eventually he died in tremendous agony and suffering and we too will have to follow a similar path we're not likely to have to suffer as much as our blessed lord suffered for us but we too will have our own passion and our own death according to the father's will and this is an important part of our life saint paul in second timothy chapter 2 says if we have died with him we shall also live with him if we persevere we shall also reign with him now right now in canada we're kind of accepting euthanasia not just in our legal system but just as a people a lot of people are kind of like oh we can have euthanasia well that might come in handy you know if i if i if i'm suffering a lot in my old age if it's unbearable well i guess i can just check out if i get sick and tired of being sick and tired maybe i can just get a little needle and just get it over with and this mentality is not christian we have a name for this it's called suicide it's a sin against the fifth commandment thou shalt not kill now suicide is a very difficult it's a very sad topic most of us know people who have taken their life oftentimes these people were not in a proper state of mind we we we hope that the culpability is greatly if not completely reduced we entrust these people to the lord's uh mercy but that's not what we're talking about here with euthanasia we're talking about people like us life is good and we think well maybe i can just one day be euthanized well no you can't you need to die according to god's plan you need to entrust that to the father it's almighty god who decides when and how we go to the next life we don't decide that and this is part of being conformed and united to christ we embrace our cross we suffer and we suffer to the end conformed to christ most of us we've seen a loved one go through their own passion and death we've walked with someone as they've passed to the next life and when we see them we see christ we see that yes they are going through their own passion and death and the lord is preparing them through this last agony for eternal life we see that the lord gives us insight you can't just check out of that process i don't care what you know whatever liberal thinkers think no we believe that god is the author of life and the one who chooses when we when we pass on and it's so important for us we want to be able to say like saint paul did he said i have competed well i have finished the race i have kept the faith we can't just check out and in revelation chapter 2 the lord jesus he tells us he says remain faithful until death and i will give you the crown of life do you want the crown of life of course you do well you need to remain faithful until death you need to like our lord jesus like the many martyrs of our faith like our people holy people who've gone before us you need to live well and you need to die well it's kind of like the the analogy of the olympics you know i remember once i was watching the olympics and it was the rowing contest you know the people in those row boats those long narrow row boats and they're they're racing and you can see the tips the front of their boats you know who's in first place fascinating they interviewed the guy who won the gold medal and they said like what did it feel like when you were rowing he said listen every cell in my body was screaming with pain it's like my whole being was screaming stop this but i knew if i persevered if i kept pushing if i put aside those voices i knew that there was a gold medal waiting for me glory and for every athlete you can't just quit even if it's you know making it to the podium the bronze medal or placing in the top 10 or whatever you don't want to be a quitter you don't want to be known as a quitter for the rest of your life or for all of eternity and so our suffering it has meaning and again we can look to saint paul who understood this so clearly saint paul he suffered a lot himself you remember st paul is describing he said hey five times i received the 40 lashes minus one three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times i was shipwrecked plus he was imprisoned and all under other hardships and this is this is how he describes it he says listen for this momentary light affliction that's what he calls it a momentary light affliction for this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison saint paul knew he knew that the love of god in in his heart that was poured into his heart through the lord jesus the holy spirit in him it is an eternal love he knew that he is loved with a be a love beyond all telling and that this love will never end and a power was given to him paul says you have not been given a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control love was put into him to be conformed to christ just as jesus laid his life down he was willing and ready out of love to do the same and paul could see in some mysterious way even though imperfectly he had a hint of the glory that was to come this eternal weight of glory he says as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen when we're going through our sufferings we need to look to what is unseen we need to to to in faith recognize there's something deeper going on here and i know that my redeemer lives and one day he will raise me up as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen for what is seen is transitory but what is unseen is eternal as christians we have to have an eternal perspective and in this life we have to let god reveal to us something of eternity the lord honors our meditation he honors our contemplation when we contemplate when we meditate upon the things of god the things in scripture he gives us light and we see we're touched by divine grace by the holy spirit and we see i am loved with an everlasting love god's love for me will not end it's stronger than death the life in me is eternal it will never end another beautiful passage from saint paul i love these passages he says i consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed to us and so as we journey through this last stretch of lent i encourage you look to christ crucified look to the one who carried the cross who who went his way of the cross who who suffered the passion out of love for you and see the meaning in his suffering see the glory hebrews it says for the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross [Music] and and unite yourself to christ crucified especially in your own sufferings now the goal is heaven there's a purpose there's a meaning to our suffering i want to end with my my favorite image of heaven to me the spiritual life it's like climbing a mountain every day you get up you keep climbing in isaiah 25 it says on this mountain the lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines top of the mountain great big party great big feast good food it goes on to say juicy rich food and pure choice wines can you imagine that somebody say sign me up who here likes a glass of wine the odd time yeah you're gonna have a little glass of wine on the top of the mountain it goes on to say on this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples there's a veil we don't fully see the glory and majesty of god we don't even fully see our own dignity why because if we saw the full glory and majesty of god we would we would die of joy we would just blow up with love and joy there's a veil but sometimes the lord kind of tips the veil just a bit and we get a glimpse and we're like yeah like saint paul the glory to be revealed it goes on the lord god will wipe away the tears from all faces in heaven there's no more tears no more pain we will gaze upon the lord in the beatific vision and he will satisfy us more than we could ever imagine the reproach of his people he will remove the reproach the things that make us sad the things that make us feel bad about ourselves that those all those things they're gone he's gonna rep remove them there'll be no feeling bad about stuff in heaven because we'll be delighting and seeing our father face to face face indeed on that day it will be said indeed this is our god we looked to him and he saved us who here's looking to the lord we need to spend this whole life with our eyes fixed on jesus we looked to him and he saved us this is the lord to whom we looked let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us so brothers and sisters we all suffer we all are going to have to pass from this life to the next for some of us it's going to be in our sleep we're all hoping for that but not all of us for some of us will be united to christ in suffering in purification and the lord wants us to persevere to fight the good fight to keep the faith and to enjoy the eternal prize

Channel: Fr. Mark Goring

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Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021