11th Week, Ordinary Time, Friday, June 23
2 Cor 11:18, 21-30 / Matthew 6:19-23
My life speaks for itself; I suffer gladly for the gospel.
Years ago, Alice Marble, the queen of American tennis, woke up on what she hoped would be the most glorious day of her life. She was playing in England's Wimbledon finals. Then came the shock of her life. A stomach pain made it hard for her to move. Within minutes a doctor diagnosed the pain as a torn stomach muscle. When Alice insisted, that she would still play, the doctor told her she was foolish. She wrote later, "I shall never forget that first game. Each swing . . . made me want to scream." Alice went on to win the match, while the Queen of England and 20,000 unsuspecting spectators looked on.
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How willingly do we suffer for a goal? "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps." 1 Peter 2:21
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Whenever we hear others talking about their difficulties and struggles, and even their sufferings, we would surely empathise with them. At the same time, we also want to share our own "sob" story. After all who doesn't have a story of difficulties, struggles and sufferings to tell and share? In the 1st reading, it seems that St. Paul was telling his own "sob" story about the difficulties he faced, the struggles he had to deal with, and the sufferings he had to endure. But he was certainly not just giving a "sob" story to elicit sympathy or to impress others about the hardships that he was going through. He had to tell about what he was going through because there were some preachers of a corrupted teaching who were boasting about their achievements in order to impress their listeners. So, St. Paul wanted to counter these false preachers, but not with a list of his achievements, but about his feebleness in the face of struggles, hardships and sufferings.
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In defending his ministry, Paul boasts of all he has done and suffered in the service of the Gospel of the young Christian communities. These sufferings affect and hurt him, for they bring out his human frailty. But he goes on single-mindedly, because God is his strength and his treasure, the light brightening his whole being.
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Paul now descends to the level of his enemies: They boast and he boasts. They give themselves as Hebrews, Israelites, sons of Abraham, servants of Christ. So is he. And then he boasts. He bitterly adds: the Corinthians like to hear it (verse 19). His boasts however reveal a number of personal details which we would not know otherwise and they reveal some of his attitudes. Being Hebrew, Israelite, son of Abraham, his greatest distinction is to be a servant of Christ. To him belongs all his time and work and life. In this he has no equal. What is significant in the enumeration of these biodata is how he looks at the apostolate. What is important is not the qualities of the person but the readiness of a total commitment. A readiness that accepts gladly suffering and failure, anxiety for all the churches. All this is his daily preoccupation.
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What are the things that preoccupy us, that are constantly on our minds? The answer to this question will indicate what our values are, “where our heart is.” For many high-minded and dedicated Christians, these values will rarely be as crude as mere pleasure-seeking and a hunger for material wealth and comfort, though these too are not always ruled out completely. But what about the ambition for power and promotion, the tendency to dominate others and to shape others in our own image and likeness rather than God’s? What about making ourselves the center of the world? Where do we look for “the one thing necessary”?
