Category: Uncategorized

***

John Stephen Akhwari was chosen to represent Tanzania in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

Though his chances of winning the marathon were slim, they dropped to zero after he was nearly trampled to death by a group of other runners jockeying for position.

In a matter of seconds, Akhwari fell to the ground, gashed and dislocated his knee, and smashed his shoulder against the pavement.

After receiving emergency medical treatment, he pushed the doctors away, got up and continued the race.

Almost an hour after the winner was crowned – and nearly every spectator left the stadium – Akhwari stumbled across the finish line, his bandages flapping in the wind.

***

When asked why he didn’t quit, Akhwari said:

“My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”

***

Like an Olympic athlete, Saint Paul has run the race of life to the finish. In spite of being beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned, and left for dead, he never gave up.

He kept the faith. 

“All that awaits me now,” he says in our first reading, “is the crown of righteousness.”

***

Like Saint Paul, at times our Christian journey can leave us feeling trampled down by grief, anger, and loss.

This is certainly true as we remember the many lives lost – and forever changed – by 9/11.

But Paul exhorts today to get back up. We always do as a nation – and we always should as Christians.

***

Perhaps it’s the best way to honor the fallen – to continue running this race of life, keeping the faith that promises us our loved ones are just beyond the finish line.

***

As a priest, I do not select the readings we hear at Mass. They follow a two-year cycle.

I find it no coincidence then, that as we approach the 19^th anniversary of September 11^th, we’re given Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness.

“Love your enemies,” he says, “and pray for those who persecute you.”

Is the Lord inviting us to forgive those who’ve hurt us immensely, even if they aren’t sorry?

***

Forgiveness is first and foremost for our own sake. 

Countless studies have shown that withholding forgiveness raises our blood pressure, deprives us of sleep, and weakens our immune system. It continues the pain someone else has already caused.

Jesus wants to take that suffering from us. But first we must let our anger go.

This is perhaps what makes forgiveness so hard.

While we have the absolute right to be angry – we have suffered unjustly, countless lives were forever changed – forgiveness means we forfeit the right to be angry.

Only then can the Spirit settle in our hearts and fill us with peace.

***

As it’s written in the Letter of Saint James, “Always act as men and women destined for judgment under the law of freedom.”

In the end, the Lord will hold us all accountable for how generous – or destructive – our lives have been.

May we continue along the path of peace and reconciliation wherever possible, as we entrust the souls of the just to the Lord.

***

How often does life seem unfair?

We don’t get into the high school or college of our choice; we get a pink slip at work; a poor diagnosis; a relationship ends; a brutal virus ravages our world.

In these moments, the challenge is to believe God is still working in our lives.

***

Consider the life of Saint Joseph. Scripture tells us he was a humble man; an honest man; the type of person you want to root for. Yet his world seems shattered by unfairness.

Mary, his bride-to-bed, is pregnant and the child isn’t his. Even after the angel appears to Joseph in a dream and explains what’s happened, his circumstances remain terribly unfair.

God invites Joseph to love a woman whose story he doesn’t fully understand; to protect a baby that he didn’t father; and to accept this child as the heir to his name.

That’s a tough pill to swallow. 

***

But maybe there’s a message in that for us.

***

Joseph’s experience of faith reminds us that God is always at work in our lives, even when our circumstances seem unfair. Sometimes we need to be patient with the Lord – and trust.

When Joseph first heard Mary was pregnant, for example, he thought his life was over. But slowly he began to see that this was the first step towards the salvation of the world. 

What seemed like the end was merely a bend in the road.

***

When have my own life circumstances felt unfair?

Or when has the Lord invited me to trust, like Joseph and Mary?

***

In the words Mary, who also found herself at a bend in the road:

“May it be done unto me according to your word.”