Daily Reflections - June 17,2013

WIELDING IT LEFT AND RIGHT

 

St. Paul’s image of wielding the weapons of righteousness “with right hand and left” reminds me of someone who could write with both hands. Ambidextrous, we call him. But there is more to what St. Paul says today than mere ambidexterity. He really talks of challenges from both sides, of extreme trials that weak individuals cannot probably handle.

       As a counselor, I tend to read events and passages of Scripture from both psychological and theological standpoints. I can almost feel the emotions of St. Paul, accused of many things by his detractors. Faced with what he calls “trials, difficulties, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, [and] riots; hard work, sleepless nights, [and] fastings,” I know that he has his hands full. He needed both hands to cope and to plod through his own experience of “sweat, and care, and cumber; sorrows passing number.”

       Last year, something similar happened to me. My attempts at educating the young were met, not just with vehement opposition, but downright accusation. When I told them that they ought to spend their money with social responsibility and prudence in mind, some anonymous parents accused me of “theft of student funds.” That was the first time in my 37 years as an educator that I experienced something so unfair and so uncalled for. I was reminded of the Danish movie, Haevnen (In a Better World), where the adult main character, though unjustly and physically maltreated by another narcissistic and abusive man, “wielded the weapons of righteousness with right hand and left,” exactly like Christ, like St. Paul, who remained true to his word: “We avoid giving anyone offense so that our ministry may not be blamed.”

       The world can sometimes be a cruel place and life can be unfair, despite what Scripture says about the innate goodness of man. People can rob us of our dignity and dash our good name to the ground. Let Paul remind us: “We seem to have nothing, yet everything is ours!” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: How do you handle opposition and persecution as you go about your ministry?

 

Lord, people may pull me down, but with You by my side, I know that nothing can ever destroy me.