No Cross, No Crown

I marvel at the idea that “goodness” should lead to material happiness; at the kind of moral universe we would be living in if doing good always led to prosperity and doing evil always to failure.  What kind of morality would be left if goodness didn’t demand self-denial, sacrifice, persecution, the cross?  If doing evil wasn’t often rewarded with wealth and power?  St. Paul wrote, “Up to this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, poorly clad, roughly treated, wandering about homeless.  We work hard at manual labor.  When we are insulted we respond with a blessing.  Persecution comes our way; we bear it patiently.  We are slandered, and we try conciliation.  We have become the world’s refuse, the scum of all; that is the present state of affairs.” (1 Cor. 4:11-13.)  Becoming a Christian sure didn’t do anything for his bottom line!