by Fr Raymond Raj
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Psalm 1:1-4,6
1 Corinthians 15:12,16-20
Luke 6:17,20-26
Theme: Trust in God
In the words of Saint Augustine:
God has one Son on earth without sin.
Only one Son on earth without sin but never one without suffering.
My dear friends, today’s Gospel theme is about suffering. Speaking of suffering, suffering is mysterious because suffering turns our heart towards God. A little story comes to my mind about suffering.
John is a devout Catholic. John has a beautiful wife and three grown up children. Because of a major car accident, John fractured his brain and the doctor told him, ‘John, I have bad news for you. You don’t have much time anymore. My advice to you is as soon as possible try to write your last will.’
So on his dying bed, John was lying down, John’s wife approached him and said, ‘Darling, I know that you are going to die very soon. Very soon you will be gone away from us. Therefore as a wife, as a mother, I hope you have written your last will.
Darling, I truly pray and hope that this beautiful house will be written under my name. I hope your BMW 5 Series will be given to our eldest son. I hope and pray all your share market, all your bank balance, will be written to our second daughter. And I hope your business company will be given to our daughter-in-law.’
As the wife was sharing all her hopes and dreams to the dying husband, the husband got angry, jumped out of his bed and shouted, ‘Who is dying? You or me?’
Brothers and sisters, the point that I am trying to make today is everyone here, including myself, all of us, we are afraid of death because death involves suffering. When it comes to dying, my dear friends, nobody is expert here. No one has written a book in this world on how to die. Everybody suffers as they come towards death.
So my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, generally speaking, suffering will make us a bitter person, like it or not. Suffering will make you and me a bitter person. In the midst of suffering, there is always a tendency to say things that we will regret later.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus hands down a new set of teaching to His disciples. Jesus says:
Happy are you when people abuse you, when people reject you, when people torture you, for your rewards will be great in heaven.
I suppose, my dear friends, as I read this verse over and over again, what is Jesus trying to tell you and me is, point blank, if you want to be happy, then you suffer. Do you agree with me Jesus is saying if you want to be happy in your life, suffer?
So I am going to ask an opinion from all of you. I see a lot of senior Catholics here. Experienced one. My dear friends, does suffering make a person happy? Can suffering make you happy? Yes or no?
According to the worldly standard, circular standard, a happy person will never suffer. Does not suffer according to the world standard. But according to the standard of religion, if you want to be happy, you must suffer. And I suppose the dichotomy between these two suffering philosophy are quite rigid themselves.
When Jesus says ‘Happy are you when you are poor, hungry and persecuted‘, Jesus is not saying ‘Stay poor forever and ever. You stay poor. Stay hungry forever and ever. Stay persecuted forever and ever.’
No!
What Jesus really meant is suffering is an evidence of our union with Jesus Christ. Which means you and I are united with Christ as we experience suffering in this world.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord, my message to you today is, always remember this:
Suffering is not outside the will of God. No. In fact, suffering is part of God’s will in the work of redemption.
So dear friends, speaking of happiness, happiness is not simply a good feeling that fades away after a while. Happiness simply means it is a union with God, a union that is unbreakable. When we go through suffering, persecution and abuse, God’s presence become real. We begin to long for God more and more and this is what it means happiness.
So as a priest, my dear friends, I am truly convinced the blueprint of happiness is not happiness in itself. But happiness simply means (for me), you and I, we are willing to suffer for His glory.
Of course, all these things is easier said than done. I know it. I knew it. But the best part of today’s Gospel is the promise, the assurance that Jesus gave us. When the day comes, because the day will eventually come, your reward will be great in heaven because you suffered.
Yes, my dear friends, the price of our sufferings will be paid full. Not now, in our next life. And I leave you with this beautiful verse to continue to reflect over the weekend:
The only place where there is no suffering, no abuse, no torture, no persecution, is inside the grave.
Amen.
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