Why We Boast

Some thoughts on affliction

YouTube might be a cesspool of conspiracy theories, copyright violations, and cat videos, but there can be some wheat amongst the chaff, if you know where to look. Case in point: Catholic Kids Media, a channel that publishes weekly cartoons illustrating and discussing the Sunday mass readings.

While watching with Amelia, this week’s second reading struck me.

Specifically, these verses:

We even boast of our afflictions,
knowing that affliction produces endurance,
and endurance, proven character,
and proven character, hope,

Amelia has a lot of afflictions. She can’t walk on her own, she has great difficulty speaking, she can’t remember things that have happened earlier in the day. But despite it all, she keeps trying, and keeps smiling.

You wouldn’t know it from the smile on her face, but when this picture was taken, Amelia had been in the hospital three hours, talking with doctors and waiting to get fitted for new leg braces.

One thing that people that know her and spend time with her always comment on is how cheerful she is. And though she has her down moments and frustrations (and pain), Amelia really is a happy child. She endures everything with a smile.

And with that endurance, she has proven her character. That character gives us hope.

I recently met a mother of twelve (!) who had a daughter with special needs. Her disease wasn’t metachromatic leukodsytrophy, but like MLD, it affected her cognitive abilities and motor functions. It was very difficult for me to see what Amelia was going to go through.

The mother told me one comfort she has was knowing, for sure, that at least one of her children was going to heaven. She might as well have been quoting Paul; endurance proves character, and character produces hope.

Because St. Paul wrote today’s passage, that run-on sentence continues to run on—

and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

So we have hope for Amelia, in this world and the next.

She prays for everyone reading this at bedtime; we hope you’ll pray for her and each other, too.