Recently I received a number of positive comments about a story I included in one of my bulletin articles. It was the story of the Monarch Butterfly. That story has long held a special place in my heart, and I believe it always will. I have always loved stories that can capture our attention and help us see something more clearly. We see something similar in Paul’s letter to the Romans today.

Paul speaks of ‘Faith’ and gaining access to our Lord Jesus Christ through faith. I will sometimes run into people who want all the answers to all their questions about the Church, faith, etc. etc. Some of these core Dogmas call for faith. If we have ‘proof’ for everything, then there is no room for faith.

It can be similar with ‘Hope’, if “All Hope is lost” people give up. As Paul puts it, “We boast in the hope of the glory of God.” Is that what we boast in?? Paul goes on to say, “Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions…” This is even harder yet. It can be one thing to believe in the glory of God and another if we are going through some kind of affliction. NOTE 2 things. 1) there is an ‘s’!!! Paul does not suggest one ‘affliction’ but more than one ‘afflictions’. 2) It is not simply to believe, but to ‘boast’.

Paul points out that affections can lead to endurance, endurance to character, and character to hope. This is similar to the Monarch story. I have gone through some dark times in my life, some a long time ago and some more recent. I have not always been able to say that I have been able to see or boast of those afflictions in my life, when they were happening. But, I am not sure I can count the number of times that I have called on the strength they have given me.
Just a few weeks ago, I was able to walk with a friend whose mother past away. As it turned out, her mother’s funeral was on the 5th anniversary of my mother’s death. Her mother died a little over a day before “Mother’s Day”. The 1st anniversary of my Mother’s death fell on Mother’s day. A pain and loss I went through 5 years ago, helped me to better support my friend as they went through that same loss. I have sometimes found that the most help we can be is simply to let people know that they are not alone. I once had someone tell me that they were crying and a dear friend came and sat by them and started crying. After a little time crying together, they looked at their friend and asked, “What are you crying about?” This dear friend said, “I just did not want you to be crying alone.”

We have a wonderful God who wants to have a relationship with us, just like that friend. Wanting to make sure we do not cry alone. But also that we do not laugh alone. I always try to invite God into my joy. I like to laugh at myself as I do things like get upset over not finding something, only to find it right where I put it (So I would not forget it). I once had to call my brother and ask him if he had the envelope I had given to him. The envelope held the combination to my personal safe. You see, I wanted to keep the combination safe, so where did I put it?? In my safe!! kind of hard to open a safe when you have the combination lock in it. If you can identify with that, you know what I mean about laughing at ourselves.

Afflictions can so easily make us bitter or agree. These in turn will lead to us being miserable. What’s the saying “Misery loves company” Let us draw strength from our afflictions and from that build our character. And from that grow our Hope. We should have Faith, Hope, and Love. If we truly live these in our lives, people will see it on our face, hear it in our voice, and be touched in their very soul.

Blessings Fr Backer