May 18, 2025 – The Fifth Sunday of Easter [C]

Fr. Drew Hoffman
Acts 14:21-27  +  Revelation 21:1-5  +  John 13:31-33,34-35

My favorite book is Graham Greene’s classic, The Power and the Glory, a magnificent story about a troubled priest in persecution era Mexico. I would highly recommend it if you’re looking for a summer read! Greene was a Catholic convert, and while he his own practice of the Faith sometimes wavered, he had a keen eye for the inner workings of the Lord and the Spirit. One of my favorite moments from Greene came when an interviewer asked him about the drop in priestly vocations. In his response, he suggested that it was not that young men thought the priesthood was too difficult, but that we had perhaps made it sound too easy. Commenting that the Church must be “an organization which as to train for combat, one which demands self-sacrifice,” he went on to express that “I’m convinced that the drop in vocations has to do with the fact that we don’t put across clearly enough the attraction to be found in a difficult and dangerous calling. One enlists in a venture which is total. People are attracted to the Church where there’s danger.”

I’ve always loved Greene’s analysis. Perhaps people are not interested in the Church not because it’s too demanding, but because it is not demanding enough! Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that we were made not for comfort, but for greatness, and our hearts respond to something that challenges us to be great. The great evangelists of our tradition knew this and leaned into it, not presenting a watered-down version of the Faith but the full and challenging Truth. Paul and Barnabas do just this in our First Reading. It is very clear that they are successful in their preaching, having “made a considerable number of disciples.” As they continue, they see the need to strengthen the disciples’ spirits, which they do not with platitudes but with a blunt, hard truth: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” While this may not be the most immediately comforting message, it is necessary and TRUE. While there will be a time in Heaven where God “will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain,” as our Second Reading says, in this life we will assuredly be subject to difficulty and struggle. After all, our Savior died on a Cross, why should my life be devoid of strife?

My former pastor, Fr. Gale Hammerschmidt, would often say, “You can have control, or you can have growth, but you can’t have both.” If I want to do things my own way, without hardships, that’s fine, but I can never arrive at greatness or become a saint. In one of his other masterpieces, The End of the Affair, Greene uses a quote from Leon Bloy in the epigraph: “Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering in order that they may enter into existence.” The implication is that the human heart can expand to contain and give more love, but only through hardship and strife… only through the Cross.

Paul and Barnabas are successful in their missionary journey not because they present life in Christ as a walk in the park, but because they acknowledge the hardship and suffering that comes with the Cross. Where am I soft-pedalling the Gospel and the Cross to those in my life when I discuss the Church? Where am I soft-pedalling it in my own life? My heart can only grow, and I can only become a Saint, when I let go of

control and accept the necessity of suffering and struggle with the Lord who saved me on a Cross.