In today’s second reading St. Paul uses simple Greek philosophy to get his point across to the Romans-when we  accepted the faith of Christ, we accepted all of it. Even though society may focus on the difficult aspect (death), we know that our faith promises a positive aspect (life). While some people want to discard the difficult and wish for only the positive, we know the two are closely united. 
   As we strive to follow Christ, we know it is not an easy road. For inspiration, we have not only the example of Jesus himself, we also have all of the Martyrs and Saints who have gone before us. As the saying goes, “ If they did it, so can we!”