By your perseverance you will secure your lives. This exhortation from our Lord at the end of today’s Gospel can be both a challenge and a comfort for us as Christians.
The call to perseverance is a challenge in that it calls for fidelity to the Christian vocation despite the many obstacles that stand in the way. When we are faced with the persecutions that Jesus names in the Gospel—or less dramatic but often more troublesome obstacles like the persistent lure of fleeting pleasures, the endless demands of family life, or the disappointment of hopes unfulfilled—then it can be tempting to give up the life of discipleship and to seek fulfillment along a path that seems less arduous than following Christ. But such seemingly easier paths do not lead to life; ultimately, they lead to dissatisfaction, death, and despair.
But the call to perseverance can also be a comfort. In his call to perseverance in the face of persecutions and difficulties, Jesus does not demand that we be the most eloquent or extraordinary of witnesses. Rather, he promises, I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute. If we place our confidence in him, the generous assistance of the Lord will be with us in dramatic persecutions as well as in the mundane challenges of everyday life as a Christian.
Today, let us pray for this gift of perseverance in following the Lord Jesus. Let us confidently place our hope in him, knowing that even if we stumble, he will be there to aid us.