Romans 8:18

I know I’ve shared this story before, but anytime I hear this reading from Paul to the Romans, I have a flashback.  43 years ago as a newly ordained priest, I was visiting a man in what was then I guess a precursor of hospice, it was a hospital just for cancer patients who were dying.  Ian Davis was his name – it’s in my head.

I went into his hospital room, and he was in his robe and sitting down.  I said to him, “Well Ian, how are you doing?”  He said to me, “Well you know Father,” (not even a Monsignor then!) “it’s Romans 8:18.”  I said, “Oh, yes,” not having a clue what Romans 8:18 was.  When I got home, I opened up my bible, and here is the reading that we had today.  “I consider the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us.”

That man gave me a lesson that I have never forgot—that the sufferings of the present are nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us.  It’s a lesson all of us can have.

Monsignor Daniel Hoye