Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

 

In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.

How do we “take courage”? Where do we get it? I offer two suggestions.

St. Benedict locates courage in the double-sided coin of the monastic life, humility and obedience. We hear something of his reference to its value in his Prologue to the Rule:

This message of mine is for you, then, if you are ready to give up your own will, once and for all, and armed with the strong and noble weapons of obedience, to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord.

Another place to find courage is in graced willingness. It is very much part of the inwardness of the person. We can hear it in this quote from Fr. Bernard Bro.

“(A)ll the God of Jesus has to say, in history and in our daily lives, is: ‘Are you willing?’ Disarmed and disarming: ‘Are you willing?’ Are you willing, like the prodigal son, to rely on another image of yourself and so recover hope? Are you willing, like Zacchaeus and Mary Magdalene, to look beyond your guilt? Attuned to the Beatitudes, are you willing to take the poor man in, to suffer for righteousness, peace and mercy? Are you willing not to be afraid of weeping? Are you willing to entrust me with your past and future? … And lastly, are you willing to have me? Are you willing to lead your life with me, the real life, the life of hoping and giving, of truth and joy? No longer us, then, purifying our ideas or inventing our idols, no longer us seeking God by the light of our own courage, our own notions: but God, God himself, with Jesus’ face, embodied in the concrete events of daily life, coming looking for us and asking this one question: ‘Are you willing, are you willing to make your life a partnership with me?’”1

 

Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB

 

[1] (Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P. quoted in Magnificat, Sept 20, 2003.)