Word to the Wise
Monday, September 10, 2007 - Twenty-third Monday in Ordinary Time
[Colossians 1:24-2:3 and Luke 6:6-11]I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his Body, which is the Church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.
There's an old expression in Catholic piety and spirituality: "Offer it up!" We all have to bear some hardship in life, and the thought that the endurance of this hardship might help someone else is comforting and troubling. It is comforting to have meaning for suffering and hardship, but does God require it? No God does not require it of us. Jesus saw that it would be necessary for his mission and he warns all disciples that the very nature of being a disciple is that they will have to undergo hardship for the sake of the message. His life serves as an example. This is at the root of the words quoted above. The "afflictions" are not literally those of Jesus, as if there was something lacking in Jesus' sacrifice. The afflictions are those of Paul and metaphorically those of Christ, since Paul suffered in many of the same ways. He undergoes all these for the sake of the preaching mission "to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past." It is not unusual to hear someone say in personal sessions with me when confronted with a moral tension in Christian life that "it's so hard to be faithful to that!" Yes, it is hard. Christianity is not a religion of convenience. It is not unusual to have someone who is suffering physically say, "Why is this happening to me?" The only response one can give is that whatever the reason (whether it be the result of natural disaster or war or crime or illness or human meanness) suffering can become a form of prayer which unites us with the Lord's own suffering but also with the suffering of all other human persons in the world. If the words quoted above mean anything, they refer to the "solidarity" that exists for all of us in faith. We can add our sufferings to that difficult prayer. AMEN
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