Hanging in There

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today contain a theme of “hanging in there”. The “personal instructions” in Paul’s second letter to Timothy indicate that Paul has been abandoned by quite a few friends. Luke is still with him. The work of the “labourers in the field” often involves “hanging in there”. Tradition has it that Paul was a difficult person to live with. The tendency to “move on” when the difficulties set in is not the approach that Jesus is directing his workers to follow in Luke’s Gospel. The worker stays in one place and receives the gifts of the community. The adoption of the attitude to “hang in” opens the door to new understanding of our call to intimacy in the Body of Christ.