Why?

 

Every Good Friday we read together the story of the Lord's passion from the gospel of John and have to ask ourselves, "why?". Why would anyone want to torture and kill Jesus? He came to preach the love of God but encountered such hate. He came to heal but was stripped, beaten and scourged. 

Why?

The cross convinces us how offensive our sins are to God. If our reconciliation with the Father required his Son to take on flesh and die for us then how far must our sins drive us from God? If our sins caused Jesus to die, then can there be any such thing as a "harmless" or "victimless" sin? 

The cross not only teaches us about the love of God, but it also teaches us something about ourselves. It convinces us that we are sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness. And it teaches us to fly to the cross for strength in temptation and for mercy when we have sinned.

Just as importantly, the cross begins to answer for us the most heart-wrenching question that every human being faces, "If God is good and all-powerful, why is there so much suffering?" 

When we look upon the cross, we do not see a God who keeps himself at a safe distance from the suffering of the people he created. We see instead a God who is with us in our trials, who feels every pain we feel and who carries us in our affliction. 

Because of Jesus' sacrifice, suffering takes on a whole new meaning in our lives. By accepting our pains and difficulties and offering them to God together with Jesus, we participate in the mystery of salvation. 

 The second reading from the letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered and was thus perfected to become a means of salvation for the world. God wants to use our suffering to bring forgiveness of sins to the world. 

Without the cross, our suffering would be meaningless and would drive us to despair. Now in the light of Jesus' sacrifice, our pains and difficulties do not separate us from the Father but help us to grow closer to him

On A Colt, The Foal Of An Ass

 

On this Palm Sunday, we commemorate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. 

He comes as a king to take the throne of David. But he is no earthly king. He does not enter on a muscular steed, but on a lowly donkey. It is not a well equipped army that escorts him through the gates of the royal city but a band of peasants. And he does not enter the city to take it by force but to surrender himself to a sentence of death. 

Jesus is not at all what we would expect from someone who claims to be the Son of God and Savior of the World.

 If we are to be his followers then we cannot live only for our own comfort and well-being but for his glory. 

But if we do take up our cross and follow him, we will know a joy and a peace which no one can ever take from us. And we will have treasure in heaven more glorious than we could ever hope for or imagine.

A Faith Bigger Than Fear

From a young age, Kayla Mueller dedicated her life in service to others. Inspired by her motto, “Let your faith be bigger than your fear,” she traveled to India, Palestine and Israel to give whatever she could to those who suffer. The plight of those living in conditions of poverty, famine and war touched her heart so deeply that she could not just turn away and do nothing. As she once told a reporter, "For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal. [I will not let this be] something we just accept...It's important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are."

As the conflicts in Syria and Iraq escalated, her heart turned to the plight of the refugees displaced by the violence. At the age of 26, she joined a humanitarian group working on the border of Turkey and Syria. In August 2013, after leaving a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, she was kidnapped by the terror group, ISIS and held captive for eighteen months. She was killed this year while still in captivity. Though the circumstances of her death remain unclear, ISIS claims that she perished in a bomb strike by the Jordanian military.

Her dedication to serving those who suffer wherever they may be has touched many hearts and inspired others to do the same. There is no doubt that her love for others was motivated by a desire to encounter God in the needy. In a letter to her father in 2011, she wrote these remarkable words: "I will always seek God. Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love; I find God in suffering. I've known for some time what my life's work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering."

Many times we Catholics are asked why we portray the cross with Jesus’ body hanging on it when He has risen from the dead. The answer is simple. Though Jesus hung on the cross for only three hours, He continues to suffer in all those who struggle in poverty, flee from violence and endure sickness. When we look upon the crucifix, we do not only remember what Jesus did to save us but how He continues to suffer in the weak and disabled. We find comfort in our own suffering and inspiration to alleviate the suffering of our neighbor.

Jesus came to reveal God to us. As we heard in today’s first reading from the prophet Isaiah, He came as one who suffers to make it clear that He has not abandoned us in our misery. He is by our side, suffering alongside us, strengthening us to bear our burden. It is easy to catch glimpses of God’s face in the beauty of nature, in the tenderness of love or in the pageantry of a church service. However, to find God in the suffering of others requires a heart softened by empathy. To find God in our own suffering requires a heart broken by humility.

The cross is the real test of faith. It reveals where our heart lies. It answers the question, “Is it God I am seeking or something else?” If I am seeking something other than God, I will run away when I am persecuted for my faith. When following Jesus becomes too demanding, I will look for another way. If I am seeking my own comfort or the praise of others, the cross will make it clear.

However, if it is truly God I am seeking, nothing will deter me. The rejection and ridicule of family and friends will only convince me the more that I can only rely on God. When difficulties arise because of my faith, it will only spur me on to seek God no matter what. If it is God whom I truly seek, then I will look for Him not only in the good but in the bad. When I come face to face with the cross, I will embrace it rather than flee from it.

The suffering of Jesus on the cross teaches us that God alone is all we need and that we can find Him in those who suffer. We find Him in the faces of those who look to us to comfort them. We find Him in ourselves when we unite our suffering to His and experience how it is transformed through love.

If we find our own suffering or the suffering of those around us too much to bear, we have Mary as an example. Out of love for her son, she stood at the foot of the cross. It is a fate no mother should have to experience, but she endured it out of love for Him and for us. She can teach us how to remain faithful and how to transform our suffering through love. She can help us to understand how we can find God even in the most senseless and horrifying of circumstances.

On this Good Friday, we hold up the wood of the cross as the world’s only salvation. It is a bold statement in a world where so many continue to suffer. Yet if we abandon ourselves to God, seek Him alone and serve those in need we will see darkness transformed into light, pain transformed into joy and death transformed into life.

In a word, we will experience the power of the Resurrection only when we embrace the wood of the cross.

The Gift of the Cross

Throughout her childhood, Anastasia’s mother did nothing but verbally abuse her and humiliate her in public. When she was not telling her how ugly and obnoxious she thought she was, she would go days without speaking to or acknowledging her.

These years of neglect and abuse left Anastasia profoundly disturbed. Even though her mother began to treat her less severely, she still would feel overwhelmed by anxiety to the point that she could not leave the house and had to drop out of school. All she could do was sit in her backyard looking up into the sky asking God why He did not give her a loving family.

For almost a year, she could not find the strength to leave her house. Though her friends begged her to get help, she could not bring herself to go anywhere and would often lock herself in her room whenever people stopped by to see her.

Knowing in her heart that she could not continue to live this way, she began to pray the rosary begging God to take her anxiety away from her. As she prayed, she would experience some relief from her inner turmoil and moments of peace, but she still could not bring herself to leave the house. Sometimes she would even grow angry with God thinking that He was not answering her prayers or even accusing Him of neglecting her the same way her mother had.

In the meanwhile, several of her friends arranged an intervention for her. They arrived at her house and begged her to sit with them. She agreed. They sat in a circle and each of them told her how much they loved her while asking her to get help. Though at first she felt betrayed by them, she acknowledged how right they were. And so, she agreed to check herself into a facility to help her deal with her anxiety.

It took much courage for Anastasia to leave her house and attend the treatment program. It was only with great difficulty that she was able to open herself up to the counselors. But, with time, she began to find some relief and, though her anxiety has not totally gone away, she has learned to deal with it.

In witnessing to her ordeal, Anastasia said that for years she begged God to take her anxiety away and He never seemed to answer her prayer. Now she has learned to look at her anxiety as a gift because it makes her depend on God for everything. She was not able to conquer her anxiety until she acknowledged that she was powerless over it and decided to put her trust in God to give her the courage and strength she needed to do something as simple as leave the house every morning.

As she put it, “I would not want it any other way. Because of my anxiety, I have learned to depend on God. And I wouldn’t trade my relationship with Him for anything.”

All of us have a cross. And when we are weighed down by it, our first instinct is to call out to God to take it away from us. None of us wants to suffer. Even Jesus, when faced with His death cried out: “Lord, if it be your will, take this cup from me.”

Sometimes, God answers our prayer by taking the cause of our suffering away. Other times, however, He allows the suffering to continue.

Like Anastasia, we may grow angry with God and ask why He is silent when we need Him most. We may cry out like Jeremiah in today’s first reading - “You duped me, O Lord.” We may think that God has abandoned or even betrayed us.

However, there is a deeper truth to be discovered. Nothing happens to us without God allowing it. And if He allows something to happen to us, it is always for our good. Therefore, if God is allowing us to suffer it is somehow for our good.

This is not always easy to hear. Often, we cannot imagine what possible benefit could come from our pain or that of our loved ones. However, it is a truth that we hold in faith.

Human beings can endure much suffering when they see a purpose to it. Just think of what athletes go through to condition themselves for competition. However, when we do not see any meaning to our suffering, we are tempted to give up and fall into despair.

Our faith, however, challenges us to trust in God when our anguish overwhelms us. Our suffering is never meaningless because our Heavenly Father promises to always bring good out of it whether we see it immediately or not. When the turmoil seems too much to bear, a prayer as simple as “Lord, I trust in you” can give us peace and strengthen us to take one more step under the weight of our cross.

Also, our faith teaches us that none of us suffers alone. Jesus is by the side of all of those who suffer to help them bear the weight of their cross. Like Anastasia, if nothing else, our cross can help us to grow in love for our Lord by teaching us to rely on Him.

In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks plainly to us: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” Our Heavenly Father does not promise to always save us from suffering but He promises to always save us through suffering. If we embrace our cross with faith and love, then we can already taste some of the joy and glory of the resurrection even in the midst of our anguish. And by offering our pains to God in union with Jesus, we will feel connected not only to our Lord but to all those around the world who suffer.

Suffering is unavoidable in this life. The question is, will we allow it to make us bitter? Will we give in to despair? Or will we allow God to give meaning to our suffering so that we can endure it with hope and so that we can grow from it? If we give it all over to our Heavenly Father, then we, like Anastasia, can learn not only to carry our cross but to thank God for it. 

Attending To Our Neighbors In Their Need

Why should I?

What’s in it for me?

What will I get out of it?

Have those questions ever run through your mind when someone has asked you for help? Our society teaches us that we should never do anything for free. There should always be something in it for us whether it be money or even just emotional satisfaction.

However, we can clearly see how this selfishness has damaged relationships and families. When we put our own comfort before the needs of others, society begins to break down. Families cannot function because spouses are too busy pursuing their own interests to communicate honestly with each other. And once that happens, they cannot meet the needs of their children. We only have to look at our schools, our prisons and even our parishes to see the toxic effects. It is a downward spiral that drags all of society down with it.

In today’s second reading, Saint Paul urges us not to be conformed to this world in its selfishness. We are instead to be transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we can look at reality in a different way, not from the perspective of our own needs and wants but from the point of view first of God and then of our brothers and sisters. We are to put the interests of others before our own. We are to make sure that the needs of our brothers and sisters are met before we take care of our own needs.

This mindset is absolutely foreign to our present culture. We are taught to put ourselves first and to let others take care of themselves. But imagine what our world could be like if we started to live the self-sacrificing love shown to us by Jesus. Imagine a world in which everyone had enough to eat because neighbor shared with neighbor. Imagine families in which mothers and fathers could work out their differences and raise their children to care for others. Imagine neighborhoods transformed because people began watching out for one another. All this could be possible if, through the grace of God, we could begin to live the gospel message of self-sacrificing love.

If a world transformed by love is going to be a reality, then it must begin with you and me. We can only bring it about by making the conscious effort to put the needs of others before our own. But how do we even begin? As always, it is Jesus who shows us the way. In today’s gospel, He gives us the antidote for our selfishness by telling us that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.

First, we must learn to deny ourselves. We learn from an early age that if we are going to accomplish anything, we have to learn to say “no” to ourselves. We cannot get our homework done unless we turn off the television. We cannot learn how to play a sport without sweating through practices. The same is true in our life of faith. To break the selfishness that locks our world in destructive competitiveness, we must learn how to say “no”. It starts in small ways by going without desert at supper or by not buying an extra pair of shoes that we know we do not need. Then we begin donating the money we save to help the poor. Going a step further, we miss a meal so that we can volunteer at a homeless shelter. Or we lose a good night’s sleep because we are manning the phones at a suicide hotline. Before we know it, our small acts of self-denial are transforming us into saints.

Second, we must take up our cross. Each of us has a burden to carry. It could be sickness, anxiety, a challenging job or family members who constantly hurt us. It is natural for us to want to avoid difficulties and suffering at all costs. But Jesus teaches us to look at our life’s burdens in a new way. They are not there to punish us but to help us on the way to holiness. By accepting the burdens of our daily lives and offering them up to God out of love for him, in atonement for our sins and for the conversion of sinners, we grow in patience and in love. By realizing that Jesus is carrying our cross with us, our burden does not seem as heavy. Then we are not so overwhelmed with our own problems that we cannot reach out and help others to carry their crosses.

Third, we must follow Jesus. Our eyes must always be fixed on our Lord and Savior. He walks ahead of us marking a sure pathway forward. We learn from Him that we do not have to be afraid. We do not have to hoard money because He will provide for us. We do not need to have a big house and lots of clothes to feel good about ourselves, because He gives us the dignity of being called sons and daughters of God. Knowing that Jesus is always by our side frees us to care for others because we know He will care for us.

There is much that is wrong with our world today. All the problems we are faced with can overwhelm us and make us want to give up. While there are no easy answers or quick fixes, there is something each of us can do. We can attend to the needs of those around us, the people God has placed in our lives. By denying ourselves, picking up our cross and following Jesus we can begin to make a difference. At first, it may not seem as if there is anything in it for us. But we will experience the joy of bringing a smile to a tired woman’s face, the satisfaction of helping a neighbor make it through another day and the peace that comes with doing God’s will.

Jesus And The Cross

There is a saying: "Don't seek Christ without his cross. You might find a cross without Christ."

Jesus cannot be separated from his cross. His whole purpose was to bring us back to God through his death on the cross. The cross is the fulfillment of Jesus' mission on earth and the realization of God's promises. Without the cross, Jesus is just another good man who said some inspiring words but who has no power to forgive sins. With the cross, Jesus is the Savior of the World holding out to us the promise of everlasting life.

Jesus makes this very clear to his disciples. To save the world, he will have to be rejected, will have to suffer and will have to die.

Peter, however, would have none of it. He didn't want to hear that Jesus, whom he loved dearly, would have to suffer. There is no doubt that Peter would gladly have suffered and died in his place. But it is often more painful for us to see the suffering of those we love than to go through it ourselves. Peter loved Jesus so much that he couldn't bear the thought of his suffering and death. And so he cried out: "God forbid that any such thing happen to you!" However, Jesus rebuked Peter in the strongest possible terms, going so far as calling him "Satan". For Jesus, there was no other way for him to save the world and gain for us the forgiveness of our sins than by embracing the suffering of the cross.

Peter did what we are so often tempted to do. He tried to separate Jesus from his cross.

If Jesus and his cross come as a package, then we cannot welcome Jesus into our lives without also welcoming his cross. We cannot follow Jesus without picking up our own cross. We cannot love Jesus without also loving the cross.

Each of us has a different cross to bear. For some, it is illness. For others, it is financial hardship. Most of us struggle under the weight of a cross made up of many smaller crosses. Whatever form it may take, we can often stumble under its weight. We can feel alone and isolated because of the pain we feel. We can become bitter and let suffering harden us and close us off from others.

But, when we welcome Jesus and choose to live as his disciples, our cross is transformed from a burden into a source of strength and even joy. We begin to experience that we are not alone in our pain, but that Jesus is carrying our cross with us. Our suffering no longer closes us off from others, but helps us to become more sensitive to the pain that others experience. And, instead of making us bitter, our pain begins to open our heart to the love and mercy of Jesus. We even begin to inspire others by persevering through difficulty. Suffering, then, takes on a whole new meaning for us. We begin to love the cross because it is the means by which we come to know Jesus in a profound and personal way.

We can begin to experience the transforming power of the cross by following the advice many of us received from our parents whenever we complained about something - by "offering it up". It is as simple as saying, "Jesus, I offer this suffering up to you for my sins and for the sins of the world." Or, "Jesus, I offer this pain to you for my friend who is also in pain." We can offer up our suffering for our own sins, for the souls in purgatory or for others who are also suffering. When we offer up to Jesus whatever difficulties, inconveniences and hardships we experience, they are transformed from sources of anger and frustration into opportunities to give ourselves more to Jesus. Eventually, we even become grateful for the struggles we encounter in our daily life because they bring us closer to him. We come to love the cross because we understand that it is the way to Jesus.  

There is a still deeper meaning of the cross. If we decide to live according to the gospel message, we are going to experience difficulties. We are going to be ridiculed for our beliefs which seem out of touch to many people. We are going to be rejected by our friends, coworkers and classmates because we live differently than they do. We are going to be accused of being close-minded and judgmental. We are going to feel left out of the crowd. It is the same rejection and ridicule that Jesus experienced in his life. When we have the courage to stand up for what we believe, to go out of our way to help the poor and the needy and to defend the rights of the weak against the powerful, we will know the real power of the cross not only to transform us but to transform the world.  

Jesus cannot be separated from his cross. But, just as importantly, the cross cannot be separated from the Resurrection! The power of the cross comes from the fact that it leads us to the Resurrection which is Jesus' victory over sin and death. It is the Resurrection that we celebrate when we gather every Sunday. We come to this place with our cross on our shoulders to proclaim boldly that there is no suffering, no persecution, no difficulty which God cannot transform. And, we reaffirm our commitment to embrace the cross by overcoming evil with good through the power that Jesus gives us in his Body and Blood.

A Taste Of Future Glory

Have you ever noticed in supermarkets a lady at the end of the aisle with a table full of little goodies to give out as samples? Usually the goodies are little pieces of cheese or meat served on a cracker. What the store hopes is that we'll get a taste of the product and want to buy it. It is a powerful means of advertising a product by enticing us to give it a try even before we have committed to buying it.

  

In today's gospel reading, Jesus is offering a little taste of his glory to us. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain and reveals to them his glory as the only Son of the Father. They had already come to believe in him because of his words and because of his miracles. In the previous chapter of Matthew's gospel, Peter had made his profession of faith that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This, now, was an opportunity to see for themselves the divine glory of Jesus which was hidden in his humanity. Jesus was giving them a little taste of who he was as the Son of God.

Jesus didn't bring Peter, James and John up the mountain just to show off to them. He had a specific purpose in mind. Jesus wanted to give them a taste of what his resurrection would be like, so they would desire it enough to endure Jesus' passion and death, and to endure the demands that ministry with Jesus would place on them.

Jesus was asking a lot from Peter, James and John. First of all, he asked them to leave their families and jobs. Secondly, he asked them to believe that he, a carpenter, was the Son of God. Thirdly, he asked them to proclaim that to others. Finally, he would ask them to accompany him through his suffering and death. Remember, it was Peter, James and John who would also go up to the Mount of Olives with Jesus as he suffered the agony in the garden.  For them to accomplish all this, they would need something to hold on to, a memory of Jesus' glory to sustain them along the way. And so, Jesus' transfiguration gives the apostles a taste of the future resurrection to help them accept the suffering and shame of the cross.

Paul encourages us in the second reading: "Bear your share of the hardships which the gospel entails." Jesus is asking a lot of us as well. Unlike the apostles, we have never seen Jesus, yet he expects us to accept him as Savior and Lord. To each of us he has given a certain mission which he expects us to undertake. Whether our mission is to be a good parent, a good student, a good spouse or a good priest or deacon, we need help, especially when we encounter hardships. We need the hope that things will turn out okay, that things will get better, that we will adapt to whatever difficult situation we may find ourselves in. For us to be faithful to Jesus and to the mission he's called us to, we need small tastes of his glory. It could be as simple as someone telling us we're doing a good job when we feel like a failure. It could be a beautiful, sunny day reminding us of the beauty of our God. Or, it could be a powerful experience of God's presence in prayer. Whatever it may be, we need to hold on to those experiences to give us the strength to endure whatever difficulties we may encounter.  And, we need to ask God to open our eyes to his presence in our life so that we can take notice of those transfiguration moments in our day to day lives.

God is revealing to us His glory in the face of Christ so that our desire to know and love Him will be greater than any difficulty we may face on our journey to Him. Peter, James and John were privileged to see for themselves Jesus transfigured in glory. We have to hold on to less dramatic manifestations of Jesus' presence in our lives as a small taste already on earth of the life that we will share with Jesus in heaven. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Eucharist. Bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ to give us on earth a taste of the intimacy we will have with God in heaven. Through the Eucharist, Jesus is really present among us and within us. We hold on to that small taste of future glory to sustain us during the hardships which come with living the gospel message of love. And, we claim it as a promise that one day that glory will be ours with Jesus at the end of time.