FAITH HEROES

FAITH HEROES – Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Year C

            When we watch some “cops and robber stories” on TV, we wonder just how it is possible that one car can be wrecked so often, and how many deadly fights one person can go through in a thirty-minute period and still be alive. We wonder at those amazing coincidences which happen to wrap everything up in a neat package at the end. Vast areas of reality are by-passed. Conditions just seem to happen that provide for the trapped, the imprisoned, or the endangered, that they apparently overcome to escape. We are taken to the edge with the endangered and we can’t imagine how they are going to escape. Then there’s a commercial, which gives us time to wonder how our hero or the “good guys” are going to be rescued or overcome the “bad guys”. They almost always do, and once again we are confirmed in our belief that good guys win out in the end.

            We may even relate them to some of the less exciting, but more real circumstances of our lives, of apparently being overcome with some difficulty and then suddenly being delivered in some way. The difficulty could have been something in the moral or spiritual area of our lives, emotional or mental in our relationships with others, some physical mishap in our work, family, school, or a difficult task we were carrying out, or whatever. We may go through hundreds of such difficulties in our lifetime. When we see the lives of those who have faced similar difficulties, and have conquered them and have been victorious, it gives us courage and strength.

            Peter and Paul are two of the greatest faith heroes of the Church, who triumphed over the obstacles of living the Christian faith and spreading the Gospel. Their lives have much to teach us in the many obstacles we encounter within ourselves, within our families, sometimes even from fellow members of the Church, and certainly from the world opposed to Christ’s Kingdom. Peter and Paul’s lives are great, true faith adventure stories. Even though they faced great physical dangers at times, most of the dangers they faced were spiritual, emotional, and on the level of people’s opposition and non-belief. Many of the struggles we face in our life are from ourselves. Our own fears, resistance to God’s grace, and sins that can hold us in captivity.

            Many are spiritual captives in their own families. They face persecution, opposition, resistance, and certain forms of captivity when they try to live their faith. Some parents are captives to their children who resist the ways of faith. Some parents don’t see how they can escape and be free to live and communicate the faith to their “captors”, who proclaim “I will not go to Church or keep the Commandments”, and you are held in captivity until you give up trying to live or profess your faith in this house.

            Acts gives us the account of Peter being imprisoned by King Herod. Peter had a secret weapon. He had the prayers of the Church which provided for his escape. This happens in many of life’s captivities. When it happens, it is not always clear exactly how it happened. It wasn’t too clear to Peter, but his faith told him the Lord had sent His angel to rescue him. Peter received his faith from the Father in heaven as Jesus told him. His faith is the same as our faith. It can be trusted and followed in our lives, and especially in captivity circumstances. On the faith of Peter, Jesus based His Church. Our lives and our Church are well founded, and are stronger than any opposition. We can pray and act!

            Paul is the greatest Christian example of living out the faith and spreading the faith to others. “The Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.” He assures us the Lord will do the same for us.

            For those who really live their faith and spread it to others lives, it is an exciting adventure far surpassing anything in fiction. The lives of Peter and Paul give us hope and courage to live our faith in our circumstances and times. The Lord will rescue us!

Reflection from Divine Mercy #507

“I desire, O my Jesus, to suffer and burn with the flame of Your love in all circumstances of my life.”