Responding to Suffering

Every Christian struggles. Every Christian is challenged to respond the those struggles. Every Christian is invited by God to endure those struggles. There are many ways to endure and many ways to respond to struggle, but only one way a Christian is called to respond.

At that time, Jesus stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes on His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.”

Luke 6.17-23

Today’s Gospel lesson can be a bit confusing. On the one hand, we hear how Christ “healed them all,” when the crowd came to Him. On the other hand, He says we must “rejoice” when we encounter suffering. Which is it? Be healed, or rejoice?

If Christ is willing to heal us, then why must we rejoice and endure? The reason we struggle to understand this passage is because we don’t ‘see’ the many who were not healed, the many who remained in their suffering.

We must admit that Christ didn’t heal every infirmity during His earthly mission. There were some who still died. Some still suffered. Just recall when Jesus allowed Lazarus to die, or when we allowed Jairus’ daughter to die. Not all suffering is ended immediately by God.

In today’s Gospel Christ says we “shall” laugh and be satisfied, but He doesn’t say when that will take place. If anything as Christians, we are called to rejoice that the world, which is fighting against God, chooses to fight against us. It means we are on the same side with God.

I invite you today to rejoice when things don’t “go your way” no matter how small. Of course, there is still coincidence, but if we practice accepting struggle, even the smallest, as a badge of honor, our reward will be “great in heaven,” as Christ promised.

One final thought about dealing with our struggles. Saint John Chrysostom taught that we could immediately reduce our suffering merely by accepting our suffering. In other words, stop with the “Oh woe is me. Why do I have to suffer!” It just makes the suffering worse.

If we can find the courage to rejoice in our suffering, the devil won’t be able to take away our peace. I don’t know about you, but I never want the devil to win even the smallest victory over my peace. Let the devil revile you. God has already promised victory!