“grounded and steadfast” in the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:23).

Since the invention of the camera, there have been many classic photographs of important historical people, such as presidents, politicians, film and rock stars, etc. There have also been many so-called “iconic” pictures that have captured an important moment  in time: Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, a sailor kissing a nurse at the end of WWII, soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima, a Vietnamese police chief shooting a Viet Cong man in the head, the girl kneeling next to the dead student activist during the Kent State shootings, the explosion of the Hindenburg Zeppelin, and Neil Armstrong standing on the moon to name a few.

In today’s epistle lesson, Paul instructs us that we should continue in our faith, staying “grounded and steadfast” in the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:23). Whenever I read those two words, “grounded and steadfast,” and want to envision a picture of such commitment and zeal, I think of that lone man, who in June of 1989 stood steadfast in Tiananmen Square against all those tanks…blocking them with his body. 

If we had half of the commitment and wherewithal in our faith that that man had for his own political ideologies, just think of the impact we could make witnessing for the Christian Faith!

Fr. John