Tuesday, January 10, 2023

 Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 2:5-12; Mark 1:21-28)

Today’s first reading addresses the great question of suffering.  It tries to explain why people suffer despite being redeemed by Christ.  The question appears academic until one suffers the loss of limb or, worse, the loss of a loved one.  Then that person can see if the explanation in the Letter to the Hebrews has worth.

The reading notes that Jesus was made perfect through suffering.  The implication is that suffering is the way to perfection.  By suffering without cursing God, men and women may conform their wills to His.  Jesus has won them justification of sin so that their own suffering can merit perfection.

We might ask, why would we want to be perfect if the way to perfection involves suffering?  After all, suffering involves pain, an antithesis to the joy we seek in life.  We might answer our question by noting how the reading calls those who suffer Jesus’ “brothers” (and sisters).  In striving for perfection, we join God’s family where we experience true happiness.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

 Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 2:5-12; Mark 1:21-28)

Suffering is ambivalent.  It breaks some.  They become bitter, insensitive, and wicked.  It ennobles others.  Under proper tutelage suffering strengthens many to resist evil, sensitizes them to others’ pain, and moves them to call upon God.  During the great depression the experience of want catalyzed stinginess in some and sharing in others.  Today’s first reading claims that Jesus was perfected through suffering.

The author of the letter has Jesus’ passion and death in mind.  Crucifixion has been called the severest of tortures.  Jesus’ torment was magnified by anticipation of the pain.  Knowing that he would suffer for others did not necessarily lighten the load.  When Jesus looked on his disciples sleeping in the garden, he might have wondered if his ordeal was worth it.  To his advantage, however, Jesus had the Holy Spirit as his guide.  The Spirit turned the evil of the disciples into Jesus’ springboard of generosity.

The Holy Spirit, who is God, will use secondary causes to achieve its ends.  We might attribute growth in suffering to the example of parents or the wisdom of a friend.  But ultimately it is the Spirit who brings about good.  We should pray to the Holy Spirit when we cope with suffering with a trial.  The Spirit will arrange that the suffering accrue to our benefit.

 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

(Hebrews 2:5-12; Mark 1:21-28)

A contemporary spiritual writer believes that it is next to impossible to teach spirituality to youth. He claims that they are too preoccupied with themselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit. One would hope to find exceptions, but the author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes an interesting statement to a similar effect regarding Jesus.

The Letter states that Jesus was made perfect only through suffering. Of course, he possessed perfection in his divine nature and had the possibility of reaching perfection, as we all do, in his human nature. But, the author goes on, he had to suffer to become truly loving, which we should see as the essence of perfection. This means that he had to suffer to attain humility and compassion. Those who suffer become aware sooner than others that they are not the center of the world’s attention. They also recognize that others face problems even more serious than their own.

It is not easy to suffer, of course. Yet we can face suffering with the hope that, like Jesus, it will bring us to a greater love for others. By allowing suffering, God moves us along the way of eternal life.