“Hang in there!”

I once had the opportunity of seeing two priests exercise  different styles of ministry.  One priest was known as a healer and he was chaperoning the patient in prayer to heaven. Another priest,  who was not always understood nor appreciated just came along, leaned over the bed and said: “Hang in there Bridget.”  Not exactly the words one receives in pastoral or clinical training.  Yet,  hoping against hope, the family preferred the “hang in there” call rather than the prayers for the dying. They wanted mother to live.

Just hang in there!  I suppose it is as good a call as any and suitable for all kinds of situations in life. Sometimes we just hang on by our finger nails and when we look back we wondered how we did it. Most likely,  someone was supporting us on invisible wings of prayer.

“Your endurance will win you your lives” is the last line of the gospel today. It is another way, more sophisticated of course, for simply saying: “Just hang in there!”

Michael McCullagh CM
19th November 2007