Who here… is kinda struggling right now?

I know I’ve been struggling a lot in my own life lately. Struggling to pray. Struggling to focus. Struggling for connection. Struggling to balance all the things. Struggling to find motivation at times. Struggling to… respond to emails. (So many emails…)

Our responsorial psalm today said: “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News,” so… I wanna tell you all some really Good News:

It’s ok to struggle.

It’s ok to admit that you are struggling. 

We’re all so terrified of failure… so allergic to revealing our own weakness and vulnerability… that we often think STRUGGLING is a sign of our own inadequacy, that we’re not good enough… that there’s something fundamentally wrong with us.

But those are all lies!!!!

In fact, did you know… that Jesus actually told us to struggle in our Gospel this weekend?

When someone asked him that very real, very honest question, a question many of us have probably asked at some point or another: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” … He answered them by not really answering the question at all. 

He said: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate!”

The Greek word Jesus uses here is “agōnízomai” which is of course where we get the word “agonize.” It’s the same root word that’s used later in the Gospel of Luke in his account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane… Christ is in absolute AGONY, sweating huge drops of blood, as he prays to the Father right before His Passion.

Now most translations convert “agōnízomai” to “strive.” But it could just as easily be translated as: 

“STRUGGLE.”

“STRUGGLE to enter through the narrow gate”

So…

If you are struggling with your finances.

Struggling with bad habits.

Struggling to communicate with your spouse.

Struggling to raise your kids.

Struggling to be kind and patient.

Struggling to be chaste.

Struggling to be a good friend.

Struggling to follow through on your good intentions

Struggling to trust God

Struggling in whatever way YOU happen to be struggling….

GOOD…

Keep on struggling.

You have permission to struggle.

What you DON’T have permission to do… is to stop… to give up and give in. To resign yourself to your sin. To wallow in your own brokenness as if you are just doomed to it forever. To be content to just sort of hang outside of the door until it’s too late, and the door is locked, and the Lord says: “Depart from me…I don’t know where you’re from.”

That’s the one thing you don’t have permission to do. 

That’s NOT God’s plan for your life!

There’s a great song by Brother Isaiah… he’s one of the Franciscan friars from the podcast “Poco a poco” … and the song is titled “Struggler.”

And in that song, he says: “You keep telling me that you’re struggling, but I just don’t know if that’s such a bad thing.”

Cuz “every good thing is born of a struggle.”

Here’s the thing:

You might think you’re not supposed to struggle. You might be under the impression that you should have everything together by now, and have no issues whatsoever.

But God is actually PROUD of you when you are truly struggling, truly striving to enter the narrow way! Truly agonizing to follow Him, and become who He created you to be!

As CS Lewis once wrote: “You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it not by lying down.” We’re actually meant to struggle against the wind… against all the evil and dysfunction, both out there in the world AND inside own hearts. This life was never supposed to be easy! And when we fail, we gently turn to the Lord for mercy, we go to confession, we return to the Holy Eucharist — and we get right back into the struggle.

But here’s the painful part:

As you struggle, the Lord will continue to discipline you, and train you! And this is often very difficult to accept.

Our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews put it best: Be careful “not to disdain the discipline of the Lord.” We must not “lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.”

When we are being disciplined and trained… we need to remember that God is a proud Father who is treating us as His most beloved sons and daughters! He is polishing us to absolute perfection. And this takes time. It often requires great suffering. But the Lord does not allow us to suffer unnecessarily or pointlessly. There is no such thing as pointless suffering.

The image that our second reading today uses is the image of a bone being re-set. This is agonizing at first, right? But it’s the only way for the bone to heal correctly. If the bone is not sort of cracked and snapped back into place… it’s gonna heal crooked, isn’t it?

And we don’t want that!

“So…. strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.

Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed!”

Guys, I’m very grateful for this opportunity to come and celebrate mass with you all this weekend. I think it’s really helpful to get out of your bubble every once and a while and remember that there are other communities — other churches filled with lots of other strugglers.

…Lots of other people striving and struggling to enter the Narrow Way alongside you.

We’re not alone in this.

So, as we fix our eyes once again on Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, let’s struggle TOGETHER to enter in… to worship this God of the Strugglers… who disciplines us, tests us like gold in the fire… and raises us up to glory.

Amen.