November 2. Rejoicing in pain.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you

and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account?

Rejoice and be glad.

For your reward is great in heaven.

Matthew 5, 11, and 12.

Christian hedonism says that there are different ways to rejoice in suffering as a Christian.

All of them are to be pursued as an expression of the all-sufficient, all-satisfying grace of God.

One way of rejoicing in suffering comes from fixing our minds firmly on the greatness of the reward

that will come to us in the resurrection.

The effect of this kind of focus is to make our present pain seem small in comparison

to what is coming.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed

to us, Romans 818.

See 2 Corinthians 4, 16 to 18.

In making the suffering tolerable, rejoicing over our reward will also make love possible.

Love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be

great.

Luke 635. Be generous with the poor and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you,

for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Luke 1414.

Confidence in this promised reward cuts the cord of worldliness and frees us for the costs

of love.

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