The Healing Work of Christ & the Christian Struggle

Why does the term "Christian struggle" have a negative connotation to us? It truly should not, if understood properly. Today we look at what a healthy Christian struggle toward Christ looks like. St. Anne (the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary), whose feast day we celebrate today, had a condition that brought her shame as she could not conceive a child all through her adult life. Yet everyday she kept struggling toward God with constant cries for mercy and to be released from this condition that brought her shame. The woman with the issue of blood struggled through a multitude just to get to Jesus and touch the hem of his garment. They are not unlike all of us. We struggle with besetting sins and dysfunctions that bring us shame. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. In this parable he invites us to keep coming to Him again and again until He acts on our behalf. What is the Christian struggle? How can we see it as a medicine provided by Christ that unites us to His grace and mercy. These are our reflections in this sermon.