Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
What justifies our sufferings?
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – 3rd September, 2023
Jeremiah 20: 7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16: 21-27
Time and again young people get carried away with some trending challenges. A little more than a half-decade, there was a craze of a challenge… it caused more than 140 deaths around the world, more than a hundred of them in parts of Russia and India. It was called the Blue Whale Challenge, a game app that involved a 50-day challenge, ranging from simple embarrassments and self-injuries to the final day challenge of committing suicide. And young teenagers were succumbing to it, without counting the cost. A game, an app could demand so much from them and get it done!
Could it be after all a cause to die for? Why are the young ready to take such sufferings upon themselves? Some say they feel the thrill… isn’t that sadistic! Some say once they get in, they are not able to get out of it, they are threatened… doesn’t that sound slavish! Some say it gives them that shot of adrenaline making them feel high…a type of an addiction!
We have others too who suffer…we had Nelson Mandela who served a term of 27 years in prison…we have Bishop Oscar Romero who was killed while celebrating Mass…we have Maxmillian Kolbe who died for the sake of an unknown fellow prisoner…what did these people suffer for? Thrill? Excitement? Slavery? Addiction?
Today Jesus tells us, if anyone wants to follow me, let him pick up his daily cross and follow me… each one of us has his or her own daily crosses, crosses that we have been carrying for years now, crosses that are weighing on our shoulders…but why should we carry them? Why should we suffer? What is the meaning of this suffering? That is the question we will answer today: what is the significance, the meaning of Christian Suffering?
Christian Suffering should be out of Unquenchable Passion: As Jeremiah shares his plight today – he feels he is deceived by the Lord but still he is not able to leave the Lord because he has an unquenchable thirst for the Word, an unquenchable passion for the Will of God. That is worth any amount of suffering. He knows it well. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, to them belongs the Reign of God.
Christian Suffering is for the sake of the Ultimate Truth: The Ultimate Truth is God, God’s will, the eternal design that God has in mind. Christian Suffering should be for the sake of discovering that ultimate truth, God’s will – this is what Paul reminds us of in today’s second reading. Even if the whole world stands against it, Truth will never cease to be. And when I decide to stand for the Truth, I belong to Christ. I have to suffer, but I stand for that Ultimate Truth.
Christian Suffering is towards Universal Good: At times people come to protest and complain only when they are affected and they have something to gain. That is a self centered suffering and falls short an important criterion to be called a Christian Suffering. To be Christian, the suffering should be towards an Universal Good. Jesus gave his body and blood, not because he had no other go, not because he felt a thrill out of it but because he fulfilled God’s will for the salvation of the entire humanity, for the universal salvation of humankind.
The sufferings we undergo in our daily life should not be merely for food and drink and for ease and comfort. It should be an expression of our unquenchable passion, for the sake of the ultimate truth that is God’s will and towards universal good that every one may know God and be saved!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He has completed his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.