Homilies
Twenty–ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 22, 2006
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What’s the Meaning?
Who among us has never wondered how there could be evil in the world? If God is all–powerful and all–loving, why does he allow pain and suffering? In today’s readings for the Mass of the Twenty–ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we learn quite a bit about the mystery of suffering and its unique power.
The very first sentence of the first reading presents the paradox of suffering: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.” The reading is a prophecy from Isaiah foretelling the Passion of Christ. In the earlier part of the chapter (not included in today’s reading), we are given hints as to why the Father was pleased to crush his Son with pain: About Jesus we hear: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief… he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities… and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all… The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous.” (Is. 53:3–6, 11)
It pleased God the Father that his innocent Son should suffer excruciating pain ending in death. Why? Because, while in itself suffering remains evil, it is capable of becoming the supreme expression of obedience and love. And in this case, it becomes the instrument in establishing the true religion. Jesus willingly suffered and died for each of us. By doing so, he nullifies our death sentence and leads us to a life of righteousness.
Further, Jesus himself—because of his suffering—is to be glorified: “Out of his anguish he shall see light.” (Is. 53:11) Because of his noble suffering, Jesus shall be glorified with spiritual sons—as many as “the sands of the sea.” (Jer. 33: 22)
In the Gospel today Jesus gives us two important truths about suffering. First, he states explicitly that to be a leader—to aspire to greatness—means to become a servant, to suffer for the sake of your inferiors. He says: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” But, as John and James bear witness, this is a huge paradigm shift. Like Achilles in The Iliad, James and John were seeking a superficial glory.
Next, Jesus gives us an explanation as to why suffering can lead to greatness. He says: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” If we want to participate in the highest glory—the glory of the God–man—we should act how he acted. How did he act? What did he do that earned him his glory? Simple: he gave his life as a ransom for the many. Jesus doesn’t expect us to completely understand this, but he does expect us to be smart enough to trust his way. “Learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart,” he says elsewhere. (Mt. 11:29) Somehow, if we trust Jesus and really serve our neighbor, we will be participating in his work of freeing people from the bonds of sin.
This is Saint Paul’s message in the Epistle today: trust in Jesus even now—or especially now—that he is in the sanctuary of heaven. The Catechism confirms this: “Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for all, intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who assures us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”(C.C.C. par 666) Jesus, the High Priest, the greatest leader there is, is still serving us from his throne of glory in the liturgy of heaven.
What’s the Message?
The message in today’s readings is to love suffering. We ought to accept the suffering that comes our way. Accept it and unite it to Jesus’ suffering on the Cross. We ought to even order our lives to suffering, that is to say, to a sacrificial love of our neighbor. Why? Because in some mysterious way there is power in this kind of suffering. This kind of suffering has the power to draw sinners to Christ.
When we think about, this is obvious to us. We know Jesus suffered and died for us and that, without him, we would be in a wretched state. We also know that there have been plenty of people in our lives who have sacrificed a great deal for us, helping us to mature and grow closer to God.
Hence, as Jesus’ mission on this earth was “to give himself as a ransom for the many,” our own mission should be that of being a ransom. If we can imagine happily having our throat slit, so a stranger might be freed from enslavement to sin, we are heading along the right track to becoming like Jesus.
What’s the Response?
So what are we now to do? Perhaps the best response to today’s readings is to pray for the kind of hope Saint Paul is telling us to have. In the Epistle, Saint Paul exhorts us to enter into the heavenly liturgy right now, so the Suffering Servant can even now serve us with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace,” says Saint Paul, “with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
It is in the earthly liturgy that we can experience the glory of Jesus’ suffering. Through the grace received in the liturgy, we ourselves are given the strength to live a life of noble suffering. As the Church teaches:
In the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, a minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle; we sing a hymn to the Lord's glory with all the warriors of the heavenly army; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, until he, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with him in glory. (Sacrosanctum Concilium par. 8)
With the Psalmist in today’s liturgy, therefore, we can respond to today’s readings:
Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
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Contribution by Brother Anthony Myers
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