The Path to the Promised Land

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14:22)

Every so often, a verse from the readings will make my ears perk up. That was the case this morning as I heard the passage from the Acts of the Apostles proclaimed. Verse twenty-two, cited above, immediately turned my mind to my fellow CUSANS and our daily struggle to deal with the pain and frustration of chronic illness and/or disability. Everyone will eventually encounter hardships of some sort. Those hardships provide us with access to the Kingdom of God.

I am sure that I have written about it before, but I want to mention it again here. The story of the Israelites crossing the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land is the foundation for the theology surrounding the meaning of our human existence. For believers who place their hope and expectation in eternal life, the desert crossing experience is a wonderful metaphor for our human life span. For forty years, the average life expectancy for people of that era, the Israelites sweltered in the heat by day and froze in the cold of the night. They suffered the bites of scorpions as well as bland and repetitious meals of manna and fowl. This was no picnic or holiday. However, they looked forward to crossing over into the Promised Land. Their human suffering was simply a prelude to the land flowing with milk and honey.

So too we modern day travelers. We are on our way to the Promised Land. Like the Israelites of old, we struggle through our human existence in the hope of something better, something greater. We follow after the one who has gone before us. Our hardships, our suffering, our disabilities, our frustrations are but the path and doorway to life with God forever. All we need do is to keep on keeping on.