For who knows God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?
For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and uncertain our plans.
(Wisdom 9:13-14)
September 9, 2025
Hello Everyone –
What does it mean for you and me to be Christians? We often measure a person’s commitment to a cause by the sacrifices they are prepared to make for it. In addition, we are taught that we cannot hope to be genuine followers of Jesus Christ without making sacrifices. But last Sunday’s Gospel about hating one’s own life and attachments, and even one’s family was not easy to hear. Isn’t there any other way? There has got to be an alternative, isn’t there?
Fyodor Dostoevsky was only in his early 20s when he wrote his first book which he titled “Poor Folk.” It proved to be a big success. As a result, he became famous overnight. The adulation might easily have gone to his head but for the fact that soon afterwards his future was derailed by the authorities. Wrongly accused of being an anarchist, he was arrested and, together with some others, was sentenced to death. However, the sentence was commuted to imprisonment, and he along with his comrades were shipped off to Siberia. Dostoevsky spent four bleak years there. Ten years passed before he got back to writing.
Instead of embittering and destroying him, the experience greatly enriched him. Dostoevsky now had 10 years of suffering to draw on, something which gave him great strength and great authority. It is recounted that whenever someone approached him and said, “What right have you to speak for the people?” he would simply lift the leg of his pants and point to the scars left by the chains. “Here is my right,” he would say. And the questioners would be silenced.
To his friends who expressed dismay at all the suffering he had endured, he said, “Prison saved me. Because of prison I became a completely new person. Siberia and imprisonment became a great joy for me. Only there was I able to lead a pure and happy life. It was there that I came to see myself clearly, and there that I learned to understand Christ. It was a good school. It strengthened my faith and awakened my love for those who bear their suffering with patience. It also strengthened my love for Russia and opened my eyes to the great quality of her people.”
The great apostle to the Gentiles, St. Paul, also displayed his “credentials” as a disciple of Christ. Like Dostoevsky, Paul too was imprisoned and forced to wear chains. This gave him authority when he spoke about following Christ.
When young people came to St. Teresa of Calcutta and expressed a desire to join her congregation, she left them in no doubt as to what they were getting themselves into. She would say, “Our work is hard. We are serving the poor and the homeless 24 hours a day.”
In the same way, Jesus himself did not hide the difficulties, the hardships and the sacrifices that would be required of those who would follow him. As we heard last Sunday, in no uncertain terms, Jesus tells those who are willing to come after him that it will not be easy. No one can come back and say they were not forewarned.
But we can draw encouragement from the example of the Apostles. The Gospels demonstrate that his earliest followers — and everyone since — have struggled to follow Jesus and his radical call to discipleship. Yet he did not write them off — nor does he write us off. And it is clear that they learned from and through their failures. So can we.
Jesus is generous with his grace to those who strive to take up the cross.
As I do for you, please pray for me,
Most Reverend Jeffrey S. Grob
Archbishop of Milwaukee
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