Dear Friends,
In a world and culture that hungers for fullness of peace and solace, it has become a tremendous challenge to experience pain, suffering and sorrow. Everything that is connected to suffering today should be erased. Undoubtedly, no one should promote suffering. However, the reality sticks to human life. Scriptures tell us that suffering and death entered the world with the sin of the first parents, Adam and Eve. From there on, suffering is seen as a curse, and many have tried to explain their own experiences of suffering from the side of looking for the person, in their family lineage who could be the cause of it.
Today’s gospel reading reminds and corrects this almost universal view about suffering. Christ reveals to us that suffering and pain are not to be seen only through the prism of curse. He therefore brings suffering into a new dimension, the dimension of love, salvific love. He strikes evil at its very root, conquering sin and death with the power of love so that we may live. The Paschal Mystery we celebrate at this Altar reveals the idea of suffering as door to glory. In His passion, Jesus took all human suffering upon Himself. He gave it a new meaning. He used suffering to accomplish the work of salvation. He used it for good. His love transformed suffering so that this awful reality that is connected to evil might become a power for good. So suffering now has a saving power. And that is how we, as Christians, can find meaning and purpose in suffering, what before we might have thought was totally useless. Job has even pointed out the discrepancy between our attitudes towards good and bad situations in our life with regard to experiencing unfortunate and fortunate situations alike.
Christ’s suffering teaches us that pain, illness, suffering and sorrows are not always a consequence of a curse or some wrongs that we may or may not have done. Sufferings are also a path to sharing in the glory of the Lord. Embracing suffering with faith becomes a way for us to not only participate with love in the suffering of Christ, but also an expression of surrender to the will of God who knows better than anyone what is good for us. Jesus looked at his suffering he embraced with love as expression of his love and obedience to His Father. We, likewise, are invited today to climb the mount to Jerusalem with him and offer to Him our own experiences of suffering as a token of our love for him, knowing that Christ is the one bearing them on our behalf.
When we look around us in this sacred place, we will see faces and hearts broken by the experience of suffering: illness, loss of loved ones, family misunderstanding, and the pain of seeing powerlessly a loved one suffer. But at the same time we can see the bright smile that comes from the assurance that Christ is victorious and that with Him we also will overcome suffering, not by flying into imaginary peace but by embracing it and offering it to Christ as expression of our love for Him. For it is only in and with Him that we can find true peace and consolation amidst the challenges of our human suffering.
Let us lay all that breaks our hearts at His feet to get healing, comfort and consolation, and a share in His glory. For, “He conquers sin by His obedience unto death, and He overcomes death by His resurrection” (Salvifici Doloris, 14). And let us continue to pray for one another and for our parish family.
Fr. Emery