Recipe For A Saint

" They will seize you and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have led you before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance will you secure your lives". [Luke 21: 12-19].


This passage is truly chilling, is it not? It makes one absolutely fear the call to become a Christian.

I remember "hearing" the call to convert a few years ago. I was filled with doubt. I wanted God, at the time, to just leave me alone and go away. I could not fathom the timing of the call.

After all, for fifteen years after I married my Catholic husband, my faith-less, God sneering parents were living far away from me. Why couldn't God have called me then? Wouldn't it have been so much more convenient to convert, on the sly, when my family was miles away, and blissfully ignorant?

But no, the call came after my father had died suddenly, and after my mother had moved near to me. Each day, she sat in my kitchen while I took care of her and fixed meals for her; and she would malign Catholics, saying, " The Immaculate Conception? You expect me to believe THAT!?" Or, she would announce to me that Catholics are gullible and ignorant. "Like sheep", she said.

I really did want to convert. But converting, right under my mother's nose, meant that I had to confront my Faith head-on. I had, since childhood, buried my faith deep down, because those feelings of Faith were scary and unsafe, in a house so dogmatically anti- religion and anti- Christ.

But that deep longing to know God was not going away. And so, I ran to my pastor in a panic.  But he offered no comfort. In fact, he said, "You can run, but you cannot hide."  Ouch!

I wish I had known about this Scripture that says, "But not a hair on your head will be destroyed."

At the time of my conversion, I was not sure what scared me more-- the persecution I was running FROM, or the infinitely powerful, all-knowing God, whom I was running TO.  Maybe a bit of both.

When I talked to my pastor about how huge and omniscient and even spooky God is, my pastor chuckled and told me, "Oh. You'll get used to it."

It was at the time of my conversion that I began to see that persecution is not always something you can run from. And, it is REAL. Religious persecution is not some archaic, Biblical event that never occurs in modern times.

I had felt the sting of it when my parents refused to stand in line at my wedding, at the time when I married my Catholic husband. I feared their wrath at holidays, and so I took to tucking my golden cross necklace under my shirt. Or, sometimes, my husband and I were disinvited to holidays, or pointedly not invited on vacations with extended family.

There were times when my father thrust his index finger in my face, even before my conversion, and lectured me about the Pope. He would say, "A politician who refuses to oppose abortion can be excommunicated?! Give me a break!" Or, " The Pope can tell a Catholic who to vote for, over the issue of abortion? Are you kidding me?! No one tells ME who to vote for!! "

After I converted, I lost not only family, but friends.

It is a special kind of lonely feeling when you are being persecuted. You feel as if you are the only one in the world going through this.

I think it takes reading and studying pieces of Christian history, to understand that we are not alone in being persecuted.

My favorite Saint is St. Paul. In 2 Corinthians 11: 23-28, Paul elaborates on some of what he suffered for converting to Christianity: " Are [others] servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this). I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger  from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and gone without food; I have been cold and naked. In Damascus. the governor had the city guarded, in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands."

Saint Paul was one of the worst persecutors of Christians, before his conversion. After his conversion, he became one of our greatest saints. (And yet, St. Paul declared that " I am the least of the apostles and do not deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. o, I worked harderr than all of them."-- 1Corinthians 15: 9].

After reading these passages about St.Paul, I feel so much less alone in my difficult walk in Faith.

I am certainly not nominating myself for sainthood, but I can learn so much from the Saints about how to walk this path of Faith:

First, St. Paul said it himself, he worked hard. The road of Faith is not a lazy road.

Second, St. Paul persevered. This is exactly what Jesus means when He says in today's Reading:
"By your perseverance, you will secure your lives." Perseverance means, literally, you fall down, but you get up and keep going, anyway.

Third, you rely on God's Grace. In this Reading, Jesus says, " [Your persecution] will lead to your giving testimony. Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I Myself will give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute."  I love how here, we are made to understand that, through it all, God is there; we have only to listen!

Fourth: You do NOT have to be perfect! St. Paul began his Faith Walk by stoning Christians. Moses, the founding father of the Old Testament, murdered an Egyptian man whom he saw beating a fellow Hebrew!

At the end of his life, Paul said, " I have fought the good fight , I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." [2 Timothy 4: 7.]

You and I, too, by persevering, by working hard, by being open with a genuine heart to God's Grace and Wisdom, can withstand everything that comes at us, just for being Christians!

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