BEHIND CHRISTIAN SUFFERING

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Jer.20:7-9; Ps.63; Rom.12:1-2; Mt.16:21-27

No one wants to suffer in this world! No one wants to wake up with a heavily burdened day ahead! No one wants to always experience heartaches in relationships! No one wants to forever live on Good Friday!

In our first reading today, Jeremiah, after preaching the Word of God finally reached a point in his life wherein he complains to God that he has been an object of laughter and everyone has been mocking him. “The Word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day!” He has grown weary and can no longer endure the suffering he has been experiencing.

In our Gospel today, Peter immediately reacted to the prediction of his Master’s passion and death in Jerusalem. “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!” Peter cannot accept that the Rabbi who has called him to become a fisher of men; the Lord who has entrusted to him the keys of the Kingdom, will undergo human agony and misery.

However, instead of receiving a consolation from Our Lord, he was rebuked! “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do!” These words seem to suggest that Jesus is pro-suffering. Yet, towards the end of the Gospel, Jesus gives us two reasons why the cross, a symbol of suffering, has to be carried by one who is his disciple.

First, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” A decision to follow Christ carries with it the reality of suffering. Suffering here is not a result of one’s own making but because of the person whom we decide to follow. Thus, we ask why Christian discipleship involves suffering. It is because the principles of Jesus Christ always run contrary to ways of the world. The world today tells us that when relationships don’t work well, then, let it go! However, Jesus insists on selfless love and boundless forgiveness. And of course, if we follow the teachings of Our Lord, then like the prophet Jeremiah in our first reading today, we will be laughed at and be mocked! Hence, Christian suffering becomes inevitable!

Second, “For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct.” These words of Jesus make us realize that suffering is temporary. Like him who was raised from the dead by His Father, on the last day, Jesus would come to console us with the words, “Come, blessed by my Father for you have been a faithful steward!” There is an end to suffering because the love of God illumines all even the darkness of death.

This is therefore our challenge in this twenty second Sunday in Ordinary Time – to remain preachers of the Word like Jeremiah by daily taking up our crosses so that like Paul in our second reading today, we can offer our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God!” When people continue to hate us because of our faithfulness to Christ’s principles, then, let us not worry because it goes to show that we are still treading on the narrow road towards Jesus. Let us persevere amidst suffering because in the end of the road lies the fulfilment of his promise that He will be with us until the very end.

Until today, our brothers and sisters in the Middle East continue to suffer because of their decision to follow Christ. I know there were moments when they probably complained to God for their difficult condition. Yet, I also would like to believe that they were able to endure all these things even death because they have always hold on to hope – a hope which is not a lofty idea or a principle, but a person, fully human, fully divine, our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!