Uneasy path, undefeatable hope

The world is not always the way you or I would want it - not now and not in the time of Saint Paul, who in today’s first reading (Philippians 2:12-18) gives these words of encouragement:

My beloved,
obedient as you have always been,
not only when I am present
but all the more now when I am absent,
work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For God is the one who, for his good purpose,
works in you both to desire and to work.

Do everything
without grumbling or questioning,
that you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish
in the midst
of a crooked and perverse generation,
among whom you shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life,
so that my boast for the day of Christ may be
that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

But, even if I am poured out as a libation
upon the sacrificial service of your faith,
I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.

In the same way
you also should rejoice
and share your joy with me.