Find Joy in Persecution

If I would have seen an article with the above title 10 years ago, I would have thought the writer was a little on the cuckoo side. Who wants to be persecuted . . . and be happy about it? It's really hard not to take things personally when others don't approve of me or what I do; when they laugh at my best attempts to be holier. Now, reread my last sentence. Remind you of anyone? Yes! Our Lord and Savior experienced the EXACT SAME THING when on this earth. Yet He chose to continue on with His mission . . . to save you and me. Think about the Sorrowful Mysteries and you will see the beauty of His sacrifice. He had us in mind the entire time, enduring persecution at its worst . . . death on the cross. It's easier to find joy in persecution when I remember His suffering . . . and I want so much to give Him comfort and thanks for what He did for me. It's the least I can do. 

Todays Gospel (John 5:1-16) is a prime example Jesus teaches us to stay focused on our mission, not the persecution:

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Now that day was a sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, “It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” He answered them,  “The man who made me well told me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?” The man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there. After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him, “Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus because he did this on a sabbath.

In Anne a lay apostle's book Whispers From the Cross, she thoroughly explains why we must get past our humanity and seeing everything through the eyes of Christ:

"The head of Jesus is hanging down on the cross. He has given everything. He is finished. The journey has been successfully traversed. Jesus has accepted betrayal and returned love. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus allows compassion to react, not anger. May He give us all such richness in our service and may we each accept the graces to respond to betrayal as He did. So it might be worthy of consideration that humanity should be suspicious of his first response until each person is well-trained in putting on the mind of Christ. Our first response will usually be generated by our humanity or the instinct of self. We must become adept at overriding this first response and inserting, instead, a second and hopefully more worthy response. We are apostles. We are called to be messengers, envoys. We represent Jesus, not our weak humanity. When we feel betrayed, we are never in a better position to bring Christ to the world. As representatives of Jesus, we are watched, be assured. Others will want to see how we are going to act in conditions of duress. Think of Scripture. The apostles rejoiced at persecution. Do we rejoice at persecution? Much of this has to do with the old, faithful spiritual goal which is trust in God. We can find ourselves objecting strenuously saying, “I’m concerned about God’s plan being protected.” As a wise man once told me, “The Lord can look after Himself.” In other words, God is all powerful and He will not allow any attack, however grave, to interfere with His plan. If we are attacked to a degree that heaven’s plan suffers, then it is not our affair. Often it will be our pride that is suffering, if truth be told."

Lay apostles, the world is full of good people. Sometimes we just have to search them out. And, there are always going to be the nay-sayers, ready to make you as miserable as they are. See each act of persecution as an opportunity to put a smile on our Savior's beautiful face. I try my hardest to be the light, and instead of focusing on the negative, I do my best to make Him happy. It's all that matters!

Thank you, Lord, for the ability to find beauty in ugly. It has taken me awhile to stop internalizing what others say and do. But thank you, most of all, for the joy I now feel when I overcome it!

God bless,

Bonnie