Verge of Victory

Breaking through the wall to victory in Christ

06/01/2019

John 16:23B-28 Jesus said to his disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. "I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."

In the development of every skill, the evolution of every science, the mastering of every sport, the individual involved eventually hits the wall. That is, you feel like giving up; you feel defeated and demoralized. But the amazing thing is that if somehow you can keep going through the wall, hoping beyond hope, you start to grow exponentially in that field. For example, people who run marathons say they hit the wall around mile twenty. A marathon has 26.2 mile, and you still have six miles to run. At mile twenty you run out of energy and enthusiasm, and you start to walk because you hit the wall. Experienced marathoners say the real marathon only begins at mile twenty. But if somehow you keep plunging and lunging forward, you can feel a second wind and renewed energy to finish the race.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, hit his wall when searching for the right filament for the bulb. He found a second wind after the wall, when he famously said: “I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that do not work.” After six weeks of studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, I hit the wall and felt I would never learn the language. And there wasn’t enough Tequila in Tamaulipas to drown my sorrow. But I kept going through that wall, and I started “habaling espanol” at an incredible rate. Hitting the wall is bad because you want to give up. But hitting the wall can be good because you stand on the verge of victory.

In the gospel of John, Jesus describes another wall in the world of Christian discipleship. It’s hard to catch his point at first, but listen carefully. Our Lord teaches: “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.” In other words, for three years the apostles had been running alongside Jesus in the marathon of discipleship, hearing him teaching with parable and figures of speech. Then suddenly, they hit the wall of the Lord’s crucifixion and death. They felt defeated and demoralized and wanted to quit. And Judas did quit.

The other eleven, however, hoped beyond hope and experienced the resurrection. What resulted? They started to grow exponentially in faith, hope and love. The period of time – fifty days – between the resurrection and Pentecost was when the apostles were hitting the wall and slowly going through the wall. After Pentecost, with the second wind of the Holy Spirit (ruah in Hebrew, pneuma in Greek, literally mean wind), their faith became formidable and an unstoppable force for evangelization. Then, they themselves would pray in the name of Jesus, and Jesus would not have to ask the Father for them.

May I offer a few practical applications of hitting the wall and the growth that lies on the other side, the verge of victory? Many Fort Smithians have been hit hard by the flood and feel like they have hit the wall. Some break down and cry, others feel depressed and defeated, some feel like there is no hope of recovery. But if somehow we can hope beyond hope, we can burst through that proverbial wall and come out on the other side stronger Christians and better citizens. We can hit the wall in our vocations of marriage and priesthood. Some couples who hit the wall in their marriage feel that maybe separation or divorce is the answer. Or, maybe some turn to Tequila like I did studying Spanish in Mexico. But, if somehow they stay together and power through the wall, with God’s grace, and eating a lot of humble pie, they will find many blessings on the other side, like one day celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary surrounded by children and grandchildren.

The same thing happens in our Catholic journey of faith with Jesus. At some point in that journey, our faith just looks like a lot of rules and regulations, prayers and penances, sacraments and saints, a bunch of incense that makes no sense. It can all feel too formal and fussy, and we wish it were simpler and more straight-forward. Sometimes Catholics leave the Church because they hit the wall and subsequently hit the road. But if we can power through the wall, we’ll find a faith on the other side that has inspired the saints and martyrs up and down the centuries not only to live for Jesus, but to die for him, like St. Justin Martyr. We will feel like the Apostles after they powered through the wall of the fifty days of Easter, with the second wind of the Holy Spirit – the ruah, the pneuma – filling our sails.

On the other side of the wall, we will grow exponentially in our faith. And Jesus will say to us: “On that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!