What justifies our
sufferings?
22nd Sunday in Ordinary
Time - September 3, 2023
Jeremiah 20: 7-9; Romans
12:1-2; Matthew 16: 21-27
Time and again the young people
get carried away with some trending challenges. A little more than a half
decade, there was a craze of a challenge... it caused more than 140 deaths
around the world, more than a hundred of them in parts of Russia and India. It was
called the Blue Whale Challenge, a game app that involved a 50-day challenge,
ranging from simple embarrassments and self-injuries to the final day challenge
of committing suicide. And young teenagers were succumbing to it, without
counting the cost. A game, an app could demand so much from them and get it
done! Could it be after all a cause to die for? Why are the young ready to take
such sufferings upon themselves? Some say they feel the thrill... isn’t that sadistic!
Some say once they get in, they are not able to get out of it, they are
threatened... doesn’t that sound slavish! Some say it gives them that shot of
adrenaline making them feel high...a type of an addiction!
We
have others too who suffer...we had Nelson Mandela who served a term of 27
years in prison...we have Bishop Oscar Romero who was killed while celebrating
Mass...we have Maxmillian Kolbe who died for the sake of an unknown fellow
prisoner...what did these people suffer for? Thrill? Excitement? Slavery?
Addiction?
Today
Jesus tells us, if anyone wants to follow me, let him pick up his daily cross
and follow me... each one of us has his or her own daily crosses, crosses that
we have been carrying for years now, crosses that are weighing on our
shoulders...but why should we carry them? Why should we suffer? What is the
meaning of this suffering? That is the question we will answer today: what is
the significance, the meaning of Christian Suffering?
Christian
Suffering should be out of Unquenchable Passion: As Jeremiah shares
his plight today - he feels he is deceived by the Lord but still he is not able
to leave the Lord because he has an unquenchable thirst for the Word, an
unquenchable passion for the Will of God. That is worth any amount of
suffering. He knows it well. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
justice, to them belongs the Reign of God.
Christian
Suffering is for the sake of the Ultimate Truth: The Ultimate
Truth is God, God's will, the eternal design that God has in mind. Christian
Suffering should be for the sake of discovering that ultimate truth, God's will
- this is what Paul reminds us of in today's second reading. Even if the whole
world stands against it, Truth will never cease to be. And when I decide to
stand for the Truth, I belong to Christ. I have to suffer, but I stand for that
Ultimate Truth.
Christian
Suffering is towards Universal Good: At times people come to
protest and complain only when they are affected and they have something to
gain. That is a self centered suffering and falls short an important criterion
to be called a Christian Suffering. To be Christian, the suffering should be
towards an Universal Good. Jesus gave his body and blood, not because he had no
other go, not because he felt a thrill out of it but because he fulfilled God's
will for the salvation of the entire humanity, for the universal salvation of
humankind.
The
sufferings we undergo in our daily life should not be merely for food and drink
and for ease and comfort. It should be an expression of our unquenchable
passion, for the sake of the ultimate truth that is God's will and towards
universal good that every one may know God and be saved!
