No matter how you feel about the Harry Potter series of books and films,
the story of J.K. Rowling is an inspiring one. Rowlings was a divorced single parent with no real income other than benefits she received. It was through this lens that she wrote the HP books and the movies that followed them leading her to a net worth of around 1 billion dollars. That is not to say success is measured in monetary net worth but it does say something about the value of failure….or what some perceive as failure.
Rowlings had a famous quote about the value of failure. She said “It is impossible to live without failing at something,” she told them, “unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.”
Then, of course, there are the 2016 Chicago Cubs. For those who don’t know the story, The Chicago Cubs had not won baseball’s World Series for 108 years. Cub’s fans suffered letdown after letdown until their endurance paid off in October of 2016 when the Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in arguably one of the most exiting final games in baseball history.
Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg all suffered defeat after defeat before rising to success in their fields. It was these stories that I thought of when I read today’s first reading from Malachi. The term that triggered this consideration was the word “Endure”. The prophet was encouraging believers (Israelites from post exile Babylon who were reacquiring knowledge of their faith) to remain faithful until the day of the Lord’s coming. To persevere. To keep getting up after falling down.
I looked up the definition of the word “Endure” and found that the most common definition involved suffering patiently implying a passive state. A sense of waiting without effort. Of accepting what is thrown at you. But I found another definition which talked about continuing to exist without a loss in quality or importance. Mother Theresa is a great example of this. She initially was placed in a school in Calcutta as a teacher and persisted in the vocation for many years. But she had an intense desire to serve the poor in the streets of the city….a request that was repeatedly denied. But she endured, continuing on to serve her students but being resolute in trying to convince her superiors of the needs of the indigent of Calcutta. As we all know, she ultimately was granted her request and the rest is history.
Malachi refers to our need to withstand the refiner’s fire, which is used to separate out precious metals from metals of lesser importance…to purify. It is through this testing that we find out what we are made of…to prove our “metal”. And, as long as we persevere, become the best version of ourselves (as Matthew Kelly likes to say).
And who do we have as the ultimate example of how endurance can help us to grow in our faith and as a person? No other than the incarnate Word of God. Our priest from the line of Melchizedek. Jesus became man so that he can suffer in the same way that we do every day. So that he can have legitimacy in his suffering and to also be a model to the rest of us. By staying true to the Father through his suffering he endured to the end. Until his death on the cross but also through to the resurrection. For without his willingness to take on this suffering and death, then he would not have had the example of the resurrection. And without the resurrection, and the promise of heaven that it brings, we would continue to be a slave to death….fearing death and, more importantly, living in FEAR of death enough to paralyze our lives. Afraid to step out in faith to help those in need and, instead, focusing on self-gratitude and self-fulfillment
And where else do we see examples of endurance in today’s readings? How about Simeon and Anna. They remained faithful while waiting for the anointed one promised by God. And their patience paid off with them being able to see the Christ child before they died.
But where would endurance in the faith be without mercy and forgiveness. No one can persist in life without failure. Without falling short. For failure can also be seen as sin. Of falling short of the life that God wants for us all. And the forgiveness Christ won for us means that sin and the devil’s influence during a life of endurance does not have the last word.
C.S. Lewis once said “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” And for Christians success simply is remaining faithful to the Gospel to the end. It is getting up after every fall until, in the end, we outstretch our hand, are lifted up and led home (that would be heaven and not, as some Cub fans would like to think, Wrigley Field in Chicago).
