I believe that we are living in a time of discouragement. Many people seem to feel that life is beyond their control and the best they can manage is to keep doing the everyday must do’s and have the occasional time out to re-charge enough to start again the next week. If we ask someone who is discouraged to come and be part of Church life, you will find that it is all too hard. It isn’t that they are opposed to Church, but that they don’t have the emotional and physical energy left to commit to attending. Or so they think.
I suspect the problem is that when we are discouraged the last thing we want to do is admit it. We mostly hate to admit our failure and discouragement. Discouragement comes from being disappointed with ourselves and sometimes disappointed with God.
My Dad tells the story of when the decimal currency came in, in 1966 and his father had to find the money that he’d hidden buried in a tin in the back yard. He needed to change the pounds for dollars. Apparently my Dad thought what transpired was amusing, but my Grandfather did not. My Grandfather was expecting to cash in those hard earned savings- but the promise of all that hard work turned out to be dust in the wind as the notes had disintegrated in the poorly sealed tin.
Sometimes this is how we feel in our life. We work hard, believing that our hard work and commitment will pay great dividends, but then life throws us a curve ball and despite our best efforts we are left with disappointment and loss. Often times there are no one to blame, and in our discouragement we lose our enthusiasm. Interestingly enough, the word enthusiasm means to be “in God” or to have God within. So when we say we’ve lost our enthusiasm it means we’ve lost that Holy Spirit vigour. Of Course, God is still with us, but we are in need, more than we can comprehend, to be connected to the life of the Church.
This week’s readings take us to the story of a very discouraged man. He is a tax collector. This tax collector is surrounded socially and culturally with people whose lives seem to be blessed by God. The people who surround him are openly and outwardly religious and the tax collector feels like a giant failure. His life might be financially secure, but he is shunned socially and by the church for the way his living is earned. He is discouraged.
Another group of people who experienced discouragement were the Israelites during the time of the prophets. In this week’s first reading we find that God, through the prophet Joel, is encouraging the people with the promise of better times to come.
St. Paul had also experienced great discouragement and he relates the experience in 2 Timothy 4:16-18 “16At my first defence, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
We find in this both St. Paul’s discouragement, but then his encouragement from God. St. Paul understood that he needed to look beyond the here and now and know that ultimately his life was secure in God.
We all become discouraged at times but when this happens there are some important lessons that we can learn from this week’s readings. Firstly we learn that we need to be honest and we need to connect with God. The tax collector didn’t try to hide from God and he acknowledged exactly who and what he was. Luke 18:13 “13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'”
We need desperately to acknowledge our fallen state. In the world we constantly have to sell ourselves and make ourselves seem better than we are.... and this can become a hazardous habit where our spiritual life is at stake. We know that God knows who and what we are, but we need to connect with him in honesty.
St. Paul learned that discouragement is part of life. People will let you down and circumstances will go against you despite all of your very best efforts. I have a bit of a “thing” against the program that came into the primary schools a while back – the “you can do it” program, because I believe we are teaching our kids a false reality (unless we are very careful – and most aren’t that careful). Our teenagers are taking anti-depressants as soon as they leave school because they find life too hard.... and many adults too. Life is hard and sometimes it is really horrible.... It is to be expected that we will be depressed and discouraged over these things.... even to the point of not being able to move on.... unless we realize some important things.....
God is on our side. Though everyone else may desert you God will not. Now this brings up another point – about prayer. We sometimes feel that because things go wrong that God is not hearing us – or doesn’t care. Our Psalm tells us that God does answer us and gives us many good things... sometimes, and especially when we are discouraged we don’t see these and need to deliberately be reminded. Psalm 64:5-6 “ 5 You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, 6 who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength,..”
We often only remember the wonderful things God has done when we are connected to the church and cared for by the body of Christ and deliberately make an effort to praise God.
When we are discouraged and have lost our enthusiasm we badly need to be back “IN GOD”. We need that Holy Spirit within that bubbles up like a fountain and overflows. Our first reading is filled with the promises that God makes to us:
Joel 2:28-29 28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
We seem to be living in a time of discouragement, but there is an anti-dote for this epidemic. It is a gift that God gave us quite a long time ago. We need to rediscover it and live a life of enthusiasm!
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