15 September 2024

15 September 2024 - 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Transcript

Reading:  

Isaiah 50:7

Write:  

The Lord GOD is my help; therefore I am not disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Reflect:   

I want to talk about the problem of suffering this weekend. But I also want to talk about it in what may be a slightly different viewpoint. Let me start by telling you a story that I heard many years ago about a new convert to the church. She was a brilliant young woman and longed to share her story of faith with children. But she was in a terrible accident right after joining the church. The rest of her life was spent in a bed. She was in great pain and did not live that long after the accident.

Her parish family was upset because they were sure she was going to do great things and share the faith well with many young people. During the months of her agonizing death, her parish stood by her. But there were those who could not understand why God would do such a thing. Why take away this vibrant young woman from being able to share the gospel with so many children?

When she died, the testimonials from the hospital staff brought her parish community to tears. You see, she did share her faith – but with the hospital staff, not children. Many people from the hospital said their faith was rekindled or they had found faith because of her example. In great pain, she still managed to share her excitement about the faith with anyone who would listen.

We hear Jesus say in the gospel today that we are called to take up our cross and follow him. This lady’s cross took her to her death because of the injuries in the accident. But it was because of these injuries that she was able to witness with joy to the conversion of heart she had that led others, hardened by tragedies in the hospital, to have a softened heart. This was the legacy of faith she left behind. The hospital staff witnessed to her joy and her faith to a parish that had been suffering because of her death.

Jesus at the very end of our gospel today said: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” What has our faith cost anyone of us?

In Jesus’ day, the only way the disciples would have understood Jesus’ reference to taking up the cross would be to see it as an instrument of death. I need to ask: have we made the cross to light? Have we dismissed the true impact of taking up the cross? I think it is a legitimate question. The problem is that if we make it only about an instrument of death, we forget about making the sufferings of our daily lives an offering to God. I think we make a terrible mistake if we place too much of a distance between these two ideas. If we think only of current sufferings, and not of the tragedy of the cross as an instrument of death, we forget the call to join the saints as a martyr.

Apply:   

Yes, there are truths to both. And if we are going to bring our faith to a world that does not understand or want what we have, we need to bring both to them through our example. But here is our challenge. How do we make suffering look attractive? I know I am not very good at it. I suffer through headaches… a lot – thank you allergies – but I am not very good at making my headaches something that gives glory to God. I know… bad father. You would think after all these years it would be easy. 😒😵‍💫🙃

This lady made sacrifice and suffering attractive to those who witnessed her joy.

But now I think of another form of suffering that is caused by Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Those who suffer these debilitating illnesses do not have control over what happens. Neither did the lady in my story, but for different reasons. Alzheimer’s and dementia victims’ dignity in many cases is diminished if not destroyed. God bless those who care for these people. They truly are angels of mercy. They are fulfilling another side yet of what it means to live for Christ. But there are also those who would choose to eliminate the victims of this kind of disease, as in euthanasia. I think it is a modern form of leprosy, mainly because we still do not know how to deal with the loss of dignity that these people experience. It is a sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

There are so many different ways that we are called to witness to suffering. Most of it can be made into a way to witness to Jesus. There may be people who do not understand the joy of Christian suffering. But maybe – just maybe – what we are able to witness to through what we suffer will gain someone else the grace of salvation.

This too is another value that we see in suffering, and when we offer it up to Christ, we make it a source of grace for the church. We may not know until we get to heaven all we have helped by offering up our sufferings.

This is why I quoted a verse from our Isaiah reading at the start. And I suppose the entirety of my comments this weekend can be summed up in the following sentence. If we set our face like flint, as the prophet said, we may find ourselves being the spark of faith that someone else needs. 

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