Homily, October 20, 2024
From The Pastor
The sufferings and deepest challenges of life exact a toll that are hard to measure. Suffering by nature is universally resisted. No small amount of human effort and intention is spent defending against the cost that suffering may bring. In the mystery of the human condition, suffering can also bring immense joy, fulfillment, and the fruit of personal and spiritual awakening.
In the delivery of childbirth every mother bears the pains of her labor. Yet, at the sight of her newborn infant, joy, and wonderment. To accept the challenge of caregiving for a loved one, (a spouse, a child, person with a disability, the journey of addiction recovery, the list is long) stress, worries, and exhaustion mount. In the end, with recovery there is joy, gratitude, and the grace of love that bears its fruit. Not all endings are happy or what we might hope them to be, but the sacrifices for the sake of love do not go unrewarded.
The readings today bring us to this core reality of the Christian life. Immediately preceding today’s gospel, Jesus makes the third prediction of his suffering and death. Despite the experience of the disciples’ confused and rejecting response to the first two predictions, Jesus adds greater detail to his third prediction. ‘The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise.’ This reality is clear and unambiguous.
Following these words, James and John ask Jesus the favor of sitting at his left and right hand when he comes into his glory. Stunning as the arrogance of this request is, it is not the main point of the reading. Humanity, represented by James and John, consistently seeks the entitlement and favor of position and power in the hopes of glory. They/we fail to understand that the glory of Jesus is beyond the glory gained in this world.
The glory of Jesus is defined and attained through his suffering for the sake of others. The glory of Jesus is the glory that reveals and accomplishes the suffering of redemptive love. Jesus did not want to die on the Cross. He did not glorify the Cross for its own sake, but for the sake of revealing the truth of the Father’s love. The truth of the Father’s love, accomplished in Jesus on the Cross, is the gift of our redemption. More than enduring the Cross, Jesus embraced the Cross knowing his death would lead to his Resurrection and that His Resurrection would become our own.
It seems ill-placed outside the Lent-Easter season, but the first reading refers to and anticipates the work accomplished on the Cross. The setting is a time of exile for the Israelites. They are suffering in the consequence of their sin and disordered life before God. Notice this is a consequence of sin, not a directed punishment of God for bad behavior. Sin serves as its own punishment. The odd verse is this, ‘The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.’ The verse refers to an unknown person suffering on behalf of others for the sake of forgiveness against their sins. To say God was pleased means God was honored, glorified, pleased with the offering of this sacrifice. Ultimately, these verses of the ‘Suffering Servant’ from the Prophet Isaiah refer directly to Jesus.
Our redemption through the Cross of Christ is pure gift. It is the will and desire of God to heal and reconcile all humanity and creation to the Divine nature. Only God can accomplish this work through the Incarnation of His divine Son. Jesus takes on and accepts the humility, limitations, and pain of our human experience to bring us, through his own body/self, to the Cross. His body, his person becomes our own on that Cross so that through his suffering and sacrifice we may be saved. This is the point of the second reading. Because Jesus knows firsthand the challenges and temptations of the human condition, short of sin, he can sympathize with every human weakness.
The humility and surrender of Christ to the human way should give us confidence to approach the throne of grace to realize and accept the mercy he has shown us. We do not approach this throne for favored seating, but for the grace of mercy that merits us a place in Divine glory.
So, what about the suffering? Love by nature is self-giving. It sacrifices self-wants for the sake of another/others. This kind of love is redemptive. It bears the fruit that grows love, healing, unity, forgiveness, and every other gospel virtue. Is all suffering redemptive? No. Much of our suffering is self-inflicted by wanting or doing things that are out of order that cause harm. Sin is a suffering, centered around selfishness and impatience against the realities of time and nature. Suffering that brings unhappiness and disorder is not redemptive. The suffering that bears the fruit of love unites us to the sufferings of Christ that serves others and prepares us for eternal glory. Seek the joy of serving others. You will be happier and the world will be better.
Father John Esper
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