In the movie "Cast Away," Tom Hanks plays a survivor of a plane crash who is stranded on a deserted island. At first, he thinks he is going to be rescued. He builds a giant fire to signal passing ships. Slowly, it dawns on him that he might be on the island for a long time. After a while, his tactics change from trying to be rescued to trying to survive.
When I was in a distressing situation, praying for change, someone told me that there are two kinds of "rescue" from a difficult situation that God delivers. One way is to have the situation change. The other way is to be given the strength to endure it.
I know which kind of rescue I would prefer. When faced with difficulty, fear or suffering, I want immediate relief. I want to see helicopters overhead and Navy Seals falling from the sky to pluck me from danger.
In today's second reading, St. Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica: "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God, and to the endurance of Christ." I don't know just what may have been afflicting the congregation, but Paul clearly sees that they need "the endurance of Christ" in order to survive and prosper.
Endurance is something I think of in regards to extreme sports and perhaps disaster survival. Marathon runners need endurance. Crash survivors need endurance. Why would Christians need endurance? We have an almighty God to take care of us and to protect us from harm. Yet Paul seems to expect that all Christians will need to experience the endurance of Christ.
There's an old joke about a man whose town is flooded and he is on his roof, praying for God to rescue him. Three boats pass by and offer to take him to safety, and he refuses each offer for help, claiming "God will rescue me." When the man drowns and goes to heaven, he asks God, "Why didn't you rescue me?" "I sent you three boats," God replies, chagrined.
It would be wonderful if, each time that we experienced difficulty or suffering, we need only say the magic word and summon God to rescue us. Perhaps, as the joke suggests, God does. It's just that the rescue doesn't always take the form we expect. Sometimes, rescue comes not through a miraculous removal of suffering from above, but from a miraculous ability to endure suffering that comes from within us.
Our careers don't always cruise ahead to success. Our relationships with friends and family don't always work out. Our health falters. Loved ones suffer. It seems unfair that our lives don't always follow the script we have written for ourselves.
If you're like me, you often feel like the man in the joke, wondering why God doesn't respond to your prayers. Or I'm like the character in "Cast Away": it takes a while for me to realize that different tactics are needed to survive a crisis that might last weeks, months, or years.
Paul prays for the community at Thessalonica to experience "the endurance of Christ." We would do well to do the same for ourselves and others. We will not always experience rescue as a dramatic, immediate removal of pain and suffering. We may find that the crisis never goes away, but we are strengthened within to the point where we can endure it in faith and it doesn't feel like a crisis anymore. |