Wednesday of Week 4 in Ordinary Time (Year I)
Hebrews 12:4-7,11-15 | Psalm 102(103):1-2,13-14,17-18 | Mark 6:1-6
Suffering is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him? (Hebrews 12:7)
Childhood is a time of accidents and incidents. Like most boys my age, I’d do silly things like disassemble my dad’s (then) expensive calculator, then put it back together…to discover it no longer worked.
Or take the faceplate off a 3-way wall plug adapter, then watch the pins of a power plug fit snugly into the exposed metal prongs of the adapter. Unfortunately, I’d often forget to switch the power off and get a little careless with my fingers, so there’d be a ZAP!, I’d be thrown across the room, and the home circuit breaker would trip. (It’s a minor miracle that I’m still alive after all these years.)
Inevitably, my dad would take down his rotan from behind a remarkably familiar picture hanging in the dining room, apply it vigorously to my tender behind, then return it to its resting place behind the picture.
I’m sure you’re curious why I seem to be drawing your attention to that mysterious picture. Wonder no longer, for it looked like this:
O Mother of Perpetual Help, save me from myself!
I doubt my dad was trying to make a point here, but in hindsight, I’d already begun to form an association between God’s love…and the pain of corporal punishment.
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One common argument I’ve heard from atheists goes like this: “How can you believe God is real, when you suffer more than that rich kid over there?”
The simple answer: since we’ve joined ourselves to Christ in faith and baptism, we inevitably share in His sufferings, but we also participate in the redemption that He’s won through his death on the cross. The idea that suffering can have redeeming qualities seems counter-intuitive, but it’s an important part our faith.
Suffering keeps us humble, reminds us of our mortality, and gives us an opportunity to reflect on what is truly important in our lives. Looking back just over a year ago, when I broke my foot and was housebound for two months, I really did begin reflecting through the pain on what sort of Catholic I wanted to be, which led after Easter to this daily spiritual blog.
So let us embrace the suffering we experience in our lives, and let it transform us into better and more faithful followers of Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of our daily pain, we often forget that You bore our sufferings and carried our sorrows all the way to Your Holy Cross. Help us to unite ourselves with Your suffering, to express the eternal love You give us by helping others in their pain, so that we may all be transformed into worthy children of God. Amen.