Suffering is one of the greatest mysteries we face as human beings, a mystery that poses the greatest threat to our happiness and to our hope. \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s better described as a stumbling block.<\/p>\n
We are well aware that we not live in an ideal world: sure, we enjoy moments of intense joy and happiness, but we also experience loss and pain.\u00a0 We are well aware that the world leaves us wanting\u2026 nothing is whole or complete.<\/p>\n
The Scripture readings today remind us that pain and suffering are not a mistake.\u00a0 When we experience it, we are tempted to believe that God has forgotten us.\u00a0 Yet, nowhere in Scripture does it say that Jesus came to take away our suffering or to explain it in a way that we become comfortable with it.\u00a0 Jesus came into the world to suffer with us, to fill our aching hearts with His presence, and to remain with us forever, most perfectly in the Eucharist.\u00a0 It is because God claims us as His own sons and daughters that we can stand in front of a tragedy with certainty and hope.<\/p>\n
The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the Suffering Servant in the first reading, \u201cThe Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.\u00a0 Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.\u201d\u00a0 The suffering of this man is not in vain, but rather his suffering is redemptive: it brings about goodness.\u00a0 Suffering is not absurd, but rather we can find hope in it.<\/p>\n
As Christians we are called not to avoid suffering, not to look for it either, but rather to carry the cross.\u00a0 The go straight in, because it is only by engaging the reality of suffering that we are able to find peace.<\/p>\n
I recently heard that God\u2019s grace always enters through a wound \u2013 like a baby who enters the world causing painful labor pains to his mother, but after the pain comes the beautiful presence of the new born child.<\/p>\n
It is through our vulnerability and weakness that our hearts and minds are opened to the workings of God.\u00a0 When we are vulnerable and weak we more easily recognize God at work, and our need for Him.<\/p>\n
The world wants us to be strong, to pretend we have it all under control.\u00a0 Yet, we suffer sometimes in silence, sometimes alone.<\/p>\n
Saint Paul writes, \u201cfor we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.\u00a0 So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saint Paul teaches us to identify with Jesus, not in his power and glory, but rather in his weakness.\u00a0 God has taken upon himself a human nature and experienced everything we experience: hunger, sorrow, pain and suffering.\u00a0 Our God is not a distant God sitting far away on a throne over some clouds\u2026 but rather He is a God who wishes to be near.<\/p>\n
In Jesus we see God become vulnerable \u2013 the humanity of Jesus teaches us that God loves us to the point of suffering with us.<\/p>\n
Take a few seconds to remember an experience where someone you know experienced the same type of suffering or pain you did in the past.\u00a0 Perhaps the loss of a parent, or a child, or a difficult diagnosis.\u00a0 Or perhaps a divorce, or the sudden need to relocate.\u00a0 Our own woundedness allows us to show compassion toward others.\u00a0 We are able to relate to them, and provide comfort because we know what it\u2019s like.\u00a0 The person hurting finds hope because now they know that someone else has suffered like he or she is suffering.<\/p>\n
Jesus Christ has done the same.\u00a0 He has felt pity and compassion for us by becoming like us in all things but sin!\u00a0 Nobody has told him what it\u2019s like to be one of us, he has experienced it first-hand.\u00a0 He identifies with our sufferings, and invites us to join ours to his.<\/p>\n
Jesus told his apostles that \u201cwhoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant\u2026 for the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus gives it all, and through his experience of pain and suffering, we are redeemed.<\/p>\n
He is the Suffering Servant that fills our lives with hope \u2013 a hope that is will grounded on His resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n
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Suffering is one of the greatest mysteries we face as human beings, a mystery that poses the greatest threat to our happiness and to our hope. \u00a0Perhaps it\u2019s better described as a stumbling block. We are well aware that we not live in an ideal world: sure, we enjoy moments of intense joy and happiness, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2533,"featured_media":4373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[208,320,1798,480,1804,1801,238,257],"class_list":["post-6220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homily","tag-catholic-church","tag-homily","tag-jesus-christ","tag-meditation","tag-ordinary-time","tag-pain","tag-resurrection","tag-suffering"],"yoast_head":"\n