We Press On

Perhaps you looked back over your year and rejoiced. Maybe it was a bitter one, and you can’t wait to get 2024 in the rearview mirror. Or maybe the review process just made you cringe: you looked at that treadmill you bought in January and wondered at what point it became a coat rack. Whether it was a good one or a bad one, 2024 is over. Now, we press on.

One of my favorite parts of the Bible is the third chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. Paul tells his readers, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:8). For Paul, there’s no contest. Christ is worth everything, and his whole life is given over to the love of the Lord. And yet Paul does not have any delusions regarding the cold-hard facts of life. He adds this: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil 3:12).

Saint Paul was constantly moving forward with his eyes fixed on Christ. We don’t know how much confidence Paul placed in himself because it doesn’t really matter how much confidence Paul placed in himself. For him the central truth was this: Christ had claimed him as his own. Let a man be strong like Hercules or weak as flesh—if Christ claims him, he can press on with confidence.

And so we press on. We imitate Paul, and we forget what we bring to the table and trust in God, because “he who calls you is faithful” (1 Thess 5:24). We approach him with empty hands, like St. Thérèse. God calls, and he always equips the pilgrim with sufficient strength for the journey.

And so we press on. We endure the hardships. This past year had its sufferings, and this new year they will again knock at the door. Yet we dare to rejoice in spite of them, ever mindful of God’s words: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Yes, the cross is real. Every day the weight of it sinks into our fatiguing shoulders. But “we do not lose heart,” because any evil we endure “is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor 4:16, 17).

And so we press on. We keep our mind fixed on the glory. We look at Christ and repeat the words of his Bride in the Canticle: “Draw me after you, let us make haste” (Song 1:4). We move “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18) with a swiftness that only God can give.

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Republished with gracious permission from Dominicana (December 2024). 

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Photo by Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)