The Second Sunday in Lent (Fr. Robinson)

​What makes for a successful life?
 
An old farmer was interviewed by a newspaper reporter whose question was, “To what do you attribute your great success in farming?”
 
“Well,” drawled the farmer, with a twinkle in his eye. “It’s 50% weather, 50% good luck, and the rest is brains.”
 
Woody Allen once said, “Success is about 80% just showing up.”
 
Here’s one we’ve all heard, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.”
 
Benjamin Disraeli defined it this way, “The secret to success is constancy of purpose.”
 
Sunita Williams and “Butch” Wilmore, the astronauts whose mission aboard the International Space Station is about to end this week, would probably say that success for them at this point in their lives is having spent nine months on the space station and then just getting back to earth.
 
A nationwide survey undertaken by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University in 2020 found some interesting things concerning how people define success in life:

• 4% said they couldn’t define it.
• 2% said success would be returning as a more evolved life form.
• 2% said success is whatever society deems success to be.
• 3% said having or achieving things that society values.
• 4% said being liked and respected by other people.

 
The next four answers were the greatest percentages.

• 18% said success is experiencing personal happiness or freedom.
• 21% said consistent obedience to God.
• 22% said being a good person.
• 25% said, living a healthy, productive, and safe life.

 
I conducted a rather unscientific survey of several of our parishioners. Here are some of the answers:  

• Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving; 
• Gaining a certain amount of stature in your profession,
• Being a good husband and father and mentor; 
• Having family you can spend time with and cherish; 
• You have to act to be successful; 
• Recognizing or grasping what God has called you to do and doing it. 

 
How would you answer that question? Our Lord answered the question in many ways. The Beatitudes, which we’ve been studying in the Adult Forum is one definition of success: Blessed are the poor in spirit, the merciful, those who mourn, and so on. Isn’t to be blessed the same thing as to be successful? His Summary of the Law: love God with all of one’s heart, soul, and mind, and love one’s neighbor as oneself. Today’s Gospel gives another: Success for Jesus was to finish his course in going toward Jerusalem, fulfilling the Father’s will in going to the cross.
 
I’ll give you yet another definition. The key to successful living is Jesus, Jesus who saves us from our sins; Jesus who is our example. The first part of the formula is simply acceptance of Jesus as our Savior. That’s what we did, or was done in our name, at our baptism. It’s what we are going to do, whether we consciously realize it or not, when we approach this altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
 
The second part of the formula for success consists of following Jesus to the cross. What that means is living our lives in sacrificial love, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. How can I be successful with my family, my job, my parish, my other relationships? By putting myself out of the center of life, and allowing God to be at the center, and by loving others with the same selfless, sacrificial love with which Jesus loves us. Such a goal takes a lifetime and more to accomplish.
 
Would you consider Jesus a successful person? In the eyes of the world, he certainly was not. While he had a large following at times, he ended up dying the death of a criminal. Furthermore, it was to that death that he said his whole life was pointed. When the Pharisees came to him and warned him that Herod wanted to kill him, he referred to his work thus far, saying that he had cast out demons and cured people of their diseases, but then he focused on his death and resurrection, “for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” 
 
As Christians, our calling one way or another is, by the grace of God, to follow Jesus to the cross by living sacrificially loving lives. There are many examples of people who’ve done that. I’m reminded of an Englishman by the name of William Wilberforce who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. A member of Parliament, Wilberforce made his money through slave trading. He was converted to Christ, and through his conversion was convinced that he could no longer deal in the slave trade if Christ was going to be the center of his life. In fact, he felt that because of his conversion, he should leave Parliament and become an Anglican priest. He sought the counsel of John Newton, who once had been a slave trader himself, was converted, gave up the slave trade, and became a priest. By the way, Newton was the author of the hymn, Amazing Grace. Newton’s counsel to Wilberforce was not to enter the priesthood, but instead to stay in Parliament and exercise his faith in Christ in that venue.
 
Wilberforce followed Newton’s advice, stayed in Parliament and fought tirelessly against the slave trade. He was derided and laughed at, yet he fought for 17 years and finally, in 1806, England ended the slave trade.
 
But that wasn’t the end for Wilberforce. He continued to fight against the entire institution of slavery. After 27 more years of laboring against that institution, Parliament passed a law against slavery in all of the British territories. It simply would not have happened, had it not been for this man. He lived according to his faith and God granted him success. But William Wilberforce would have led a successful life even if he hadn’t reached his goal, for he lived according to what he perceived was God’s will for his life.
 
How do you define success? We all enjoy the comforts that this world has to offer; we want healthy, productive, and safe lives; good, wholesome families. But if we focus on these things as ends in themselves, as good as they are, and rely on them for our fulfillment, we’re focusing on a dead end, whose end is despair. The only way to ultimate success in life is to follow the example of Jesus, our Savior and Lord, taking up our cross daily and following him. What does it mean this day for you to take up your cross?