20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Aug. 18, 2013
Heb 12: 1-4
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon
“Since
we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of
every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that
lies before us” (Heb 12: 1).
The
Letter to the Hebrews, an anonymous epistle addressed to Christians very
familiar with the Old Testament, probably Jewish Christians, consists of 13
chapters. This year, Year C in our
3-year lectionary cycle, we read from its 12th and 13th chapters for 4 Sundays
, starting last week, which gives us only a tiny taste of the letter.
One
of Hebrews’ themes is the faith of the great heroes of the Old Testament. Those are the “cloud of witnesses” that
today’s reading referred to—people like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Rahab,
Gideon, David, and Samuel (cf. ch. 11).
Their faith, their perseverance in all manner of testing and difficulty,
is a witness, a testimony, an example for followers of Jesus. So says our anonymous author.
Their
example encourages Christians to get rid “of every burden and sin that clings
to us” and weighs us down while we run toward our goal of eternal life. Here “burden and sin” seem to be the same
thing. As we read further, tho, about
Jesus on the cross, we see that any serious temptation, anything that might discourage
us, can be seen as a burden even if it’s not, morally speaking, a sin.
Obviously,
if we are to “run the race that lies before us” and reach “Jesus, the leader
and perfecter of faith” in God’s kingdom, we have to start by unburdening ourselves
of sin. Nothing like trying to run a
race while carrying a great big backpack or wearing ankle weights! We unshed that burden when we were baptized. Unhappily, we pile the burden back on
ourselves, sometimes loading big rocks into our backpacks, sometimes just
little pebbles—our serious sins, our less serious ones that we commit day by
day. We can’t be re-baptized, but Christ
in his mercy does offer us another sacrament by which to empty that backpack or
even to throw it away entirely, viz., the sacrament of Reconciliation or
Penance (confession). What an advantage
to our race toward Jesus!
Part of the image on the Holy Shroud |
“Consider
how he endured such opposition from sinners,” Hebrews says, “in order that you
may not grow weary and lose heart” (12:3).
Jesus was completely innocent of any crime, any sin. We
can’t say that, at least in regard to sin, or in regard to some bad
habits. We may suffer something we don’t
seem to deserve; most of us suffer things we don’t seem to deserve. In the 1st reading, we heard how poor
Jeremiah the prophet was unjustly persecuted by the princes of his people (Jer
38:4-6,8-10). Our Christian ancestors
didn’t deserve persecution by the Roman Empire, other pagan rulers, the Nazis,
or Communist governments. Our Christian
brothers and sisters in Egypt right now are having their churches attacked and
ransacked and burned, and their lives are in danger; Egypt is only the latest
episode in that old story.
In
a more ordinary way, we may suffer unjustly because of things that people say
about us, or because the someone blames us for something that wasn’t our
fault. We may suffer from an accident we
didn’t cause or from a natural disaster.
We all get sick or injured. We
all have aches and pains. Most of us
aren’t eager to get up in the morning.
Some of us hate our commutes to work.
The youngsters suffer from having to go to school—at least that’s what
they think now, regardless of how they’ll view it in 20 years. We can all add something to this list of
undeserved or disproportionate suffering.
The
Scriptures tell us to look at Jesus and take courage. When we suffer, he’s alongside us, “leading”
us and “perfecting our faith.” We walk
in his steps. If we “keep our eyes fixed
on Jesus,” it’s not that we won’t feel pain or anxiety, and that we won’t die;
it’s that we have hope: “for the sake of
the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross … and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God”
(12:2). Jesus tells us in John’s gospel
that he has gone ahead of us to prepare places for us (14:2-3); the Collect alludes
to that today: “O God, you have prepared
for those who love you good things which no eye can see,” and it prays that “we
may attain your promises, which surpass every human desire.”
So,
whether we endure persecution or discrimination of some kind because we are
believers, because we try to do what’s right even when people think we’re weird
or crazy or obnoxious; or we endure the common suffering of the human
condition—we run this race toward Jesus, with Jesus, toward promises, gifts,
that will fulfill us far beyond our wildest dreams. “Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus” makes
suffering a bit less of a burden, gives us boundless hope and inner joy.
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