Going down the scary tunnel

“So, who wants to go down the creepy tunnel first?”

That is a line from a movie advertisement currently on U.S. television. The “creepy tunnel,” of course, is just a collection of sets and special effects. It’s only a movie, after all.

In today’s first reading (Acts 20:17-27), St. Paul is looking down a metaphorical tunnel that is much more real and much more frightening:

And now, behold,
I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city,
saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

St. Paul is not afraid. He willingly and even joyfully goes down that scary tunnel because he knows that it is the path God has set out for him.

We too may have scary tunnels in our own lives. Sometimes it is a particularly difficult illness. Sometimes it involves taking upon ourselves a heavy responsibility that will have to bear for a long time. Sometimes it involves explicitly answering a vocation from God to dedicate one’s life completely to his service.

We need to pray always for God’s grace, that we may remain faithful to him and to his path for us, no matter how scary that path might appear.

But none of these things move me,
neither count I my life dear unto myself,
so that I might finish
my course with joy,
and the ministry,
which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God.