“Jesus said in reply, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We can.’ He replied, ‘My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’” (Matthew 20:22-23)
Today is the Feast of St. James. During Mass today, the prayer over the offering mentions that God willed St. James to “be the first among the Apostles to drink of Christ’s chalice of suffering.” Christ told James that he would indeed drink of his chalice. As Christians, we all will at some time in our life drink of Christ’s chalice of suffering. None of us are able to avoid it. Some people choose to lash out at God for their suffering. A few years ago a coworker was worried that his young daughter may have diabetes. I remember him saying that he was going to be very angry at God if she has diabetes because they have given a lot of money to their church. He thought he could buy protection for him and his family by giving to his church. I was amazed that he truly believed that his anger at God would be justified.
Suffering is one of those things we will never understand, at least not while we are here on earth. Why does one family end up burying three of their children while another never experiences the death of someone young in their family? How can the fires in Colorado burn to the ground every house in a neighborhood but one remains standing without any damage? Suffering is inevitable just as Jesus mentions in today’s gospel. But how we deal with it is up to us.
“We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) It is our faith in Jesus Christ, our hope in the promise of eternal life that allows us to endure our suffereing. There is reassurance throughout scripture that God will never abandon us, he never gives us more than we can bear as long as we share in his suffering. It is only when we are united with Christ in our suffering that we can find peace even in the midst of our storms. We need to allow God to help us stand strong in faith during times of adversity.
Dear Lord, no matter what life has in store, help me to trust in your fidelity to your people. Help me to keep my eyes completely fixed on you instead of being overwhelmed by all that is going on around me. Help me to have a heart like Job who praised you even when his world was crashing in around him. “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!” (Job 1:21)
No comments:
Post a Comment