Painting: Christ of St. John of the Cross (Salvador Dali)
Several Sundays ago while I was assisting Fr. Kevin at Mass, a little girl of 4 or 5 years of age and her dad approached me as I distributed Holy Communion. The little girl had her arms folded over her chest wanting a blessing. I extended my left hand over her and said, “May God bless you and keep you!” She looked at my extended hand and then in a joyful gesture, giggled and high fived me, slapping my hand, saying, “Alright!” At first, I was startled and then amused, as was her dad. I thought to myself, “If only all people approached Holy Communion with the same joy and excitement as this little girl!”
In all of the scripture readings for today we hear similar expressions of joy. In the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles left the Sanhedrin, “rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name [of Jesus].” In Revelations, we hear all living creatures and the elders joyfully crying out, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.” In the John’s Gospel account, the disciple rejoiced when they recognized the risen Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. Then the Gospel writer tells us that Jesus takes Peter aside and says to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Then the Gospel writer concludes, “Jesus said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.’”
In all of these readings there is an association of unbridled joy to suffering and death. Joy is not the normal emotional state we generally associate with suffering and death. In the Gospel, Jesus talks about Peter glorifying God by dying. How is there any glory in dying? We usually associate misery, pain and grieving to suffering and death but not joy.
Each and every one of us has experienced some kind of suffering in our lives. Our suffering may be physical from an illness or some kind of injury. The death of a loved one, the broken relationships that occur in divorce, the breaking off of a long term romantic relationship or a friendship with someone significant, depression, the loss of employment or of a home can bring upon us great emotional and spiritual pain and suffering. But why do the scripture writers insist on associating joy with suffering?
Ordinarily, I think we would all think a person rather sadistic who would find joy in all this kind of suffering. The difficulty we encounter in suffering is that we can get so stuck in our suffering, that we dwell in it and make it an end unto itself. We wonder why God is punishing us. What have we done that God is punishing us with such suffering? What the scriptures tell us today is that human suffering is not permanent, rather it is temporary, a process through which we must pass in order to find true and complete joy. This is what the Paschal Mystery of Jesus teaches us.
In order for the joy in the Resurrection to occur, Jesus had to first experience being betrayed and abandoned by his most trusted followers, tortured, beaten and executed. Jesus had to pass through his passion and death in order to experience the joy of the Resurrection. You and I would not have the joy of receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion had not Jesus first suffered and died, then rose from the dead. We reap the benefits of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection every time we receive Holy Communion.
We find meaning and purpose to our human suffering in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes that In our baptism we have been united to Jesus and have suffered and died with him. However, we also have been resurrected with him. Our union with Jesus is so intimate and close that in our own suffering we share in his suffering. In our sharing of his suffering, our suffering takes on the redemptive quality of his. As Jesus had to pass through his suffering to reach the resurrection, our suffering, too, is only temporary. Our suffering is not a permanent state, but a temporary condition through which we must pass to reach our ultimate joy, our own resurrection.
When the time comes when our ultimate suffering occurs and our human bodies wear out and die, we will not remain dead. We will rise from the dead. This is why we sing following the consecration at Mass, “When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death Lord Jesus, until you come again in glory.” When we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion, our suffering and our death are united to his redemptive suffering, death and resurrection, until it is no longer necessary when Jesus returns in glory.
None of us need to seek out suffering or death. These all come our way eventually. However, when we do find ourselves in the throes of suffering, let us not get stuck in it. Let us not dwell on our suffering as permanent. Rather let us look beyond the suffering we are experiencing to the joy that awaits us. When we do so, the anticipation of that joy will help sustain us.
As the apostles left the Sanhedrin in joy for having suffered for the sake of Jesus, as the Lamb who was slain received all power, riches, and glory, and as Peter would give glory to God in his own suffering and death, may we find within our own suffering the promise of God’s joy, that same joy that filled that little girl when she high fived me at communion several weeks ago.
