PARADOXICAL

From a homily by Fr. Glen Paul Gomez, SVD, in a TV mass today, I learned about Paul Stoltz inventing what he calls AQ or adversity quotient. With AQ, Stoltz establishes(?) what is called the science of resiliency. According to this view, there are three kinds of people in terms of AQ:

1. Quitters - those who quit when trouble strikes
2. Campers - those who like to climb the mountain of adversity but get easily exhausted and don't finish the climb
3. Ones who persevere

Where am I in these categories? Am I like Walt Disney, Thomas Alva Edison, and others who persevered through great ordeal? I have, to be honest, a little of each of the three categories in me. I know intimately how it is to quit, to camp, and also to persevere, depending on the problem.

Applying AQ in Christian life, Fr. Glen asked: Where do you fare in terms of these three major hurdles of the journey?

1. I need a Savior.
2. I know my Savior.
3. I (like to) imitate my Savior.

No question about number 1 -- totally sold on that. Number 2 is an ongoing process -- as the Italians would grimly say, there's no rest from learning "until the coffin." As for the third, I am having a big problem imitating my Savior in terms of his Passion and especially death. Because of my past, I am afraid to get hurt (on all levels),  and I especially dread death, whether figurative or physical and most especially physical. I am such a coward that way. But I love myself enough to accept this (instead of deny) and work on these issues slowly.

There is  another way of looking at the Christian life using the AQ self-assessment test, to quote Fr. Glen further:

1. Am I connected to God?
2. If I am disconnected in some way, in what areas do I need to be reconnected?
3. Am I intensely connected to such an extent that I go beyond myself and my own issues? Do I give alms? Am I involved in issues that, for a change, are not all about me?

Tough questions to ask myself today, but I'm gladly taking the challenge. Thank God for His chosen pastors.