Zero Hour

“For he says, ‘At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Saint Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:2 begins a powerful section in which he talks about the difficulties he will or has already encountered: ‘in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger;” then he teaches how he will get through them, “by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness.” St. Paul knew the calling of God; he had experienced it tangibly on the road to Damascus. One of the great sinners who had persecuted and killed members of Christ’s body, the early Church, he now was following Jesus and fulfilling Christ’s mission for his life...but it was hard.

Let us make this new year a time of leaning into the hard things. In The Imitation of Christ (Book 1, section 22:5) Thomas a Kempis writes, “Now is the time for action; this is zero-hour, just the right moment for making something better of my life.”

Men, you must understand the only way forward is through difficulties. Only struggle produces strength, reveals the man God is calling all of us to be. Be done with soft and comfort. Study, then practice virtue and the faith so that you can be a man of righteousness, like St. Joseph, like St. Paul using the “weapons of righteousness.” Train your body like St. Paul in 1 Cor 9:27, “pommel it and subdue it” so that your body and its tendency toward comfort will not “disqualify” you. How soft have you and I become? It’s zero hour.