Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary time –Year ABE COURAGEOUS IN TIMES OF SUFFERINGSJeremiah 20:10-13
Romans 5:12-15
Mathew 10:26-33
Dear friends in Christ Jesus how many of you want to be happy? (Raise your hands) If you want to be happy always which will be the suitable place for you? Heaven is the suitable place for happiness. Because only in that place there will no sufferings, problems, pain etc. so to be happy always we need to go to heaven. How many of you are ready to go to heaven? (Raise your hands) If you want to go to heaven you must die. Are you ready to die? Today we all of us want to go to heaven but we don’t want to die now.
Once I met a grandma and I asked her, how are you? Are you happy grandma? Thinking for a while she replied to me. How can I be happy father? I have three children. I worked hard to bring them up. But now all my children left me alone. Today nobody is there to give even a glass of water to me? Then how can I be happy?
Recently I met my old family friend and I asked him. Anna how are you? Are you happy? Promptly he replied to me that I was happy once upon a time. But when I got married l have lost all of my happiness. I have two female children. I have given them good education, whatever they asked I have bought for them. Every month I used to save little money for the marriage of my daughter. Past six years I have saved 2 lakes. With the plan of arranging marriage I was looking for an alliance. During this time my second daughter finished her studies and she wanted to join for medical college. So I took all the money which I have kept for the marriage and paid for the medical seat and send my daughter to the college. Initially she was good at studying and regular in going for the college. After few months she loved a boy. Instead of going to college they went for cinema, park and different places. After few months she became pregnant and the boy left her alone. Now she is at my home. She has lost her education, lost her future, I have lost my money, and elder daughter remains at home. In this situation how can I be happy?
By seeing all these examples we understand that this world is not a place of happiness alone. This world is a combination of sorrows and joyfulness, sufferings and happiness. The world does not exist only in sorrows or only in happiness. The world is like a two sides of the same coin. One side is happiness the other side is sufferings. Today Jesus tells us how to react in the times of sufferings, pain difficulties etc?
In the first reading the prophet Jeremiah tells us his sufferings “Terror on every side! Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!” All my trusted friends, watching for my fall, say: “Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him and take our revenge on him.” not only this in the whole of chapter 20 Jeremiah curses the day of his birth, his mother, and the person who announced the birth because Jeremiah has underwent so much of sufferings in his life. In the second reading St. Paul says that by the sin of one man the death entered into the world and because of the death, sufferings filled the lives of the humanity. In the Gospel Jesus tells us to be bold and courageous in the time of sufferings saying “do not be afraid of the person who kills the body”. Thus we understand that everyone on this earth undergoes some kinds of sufferings in their lives.
Who is the cause for our sufferings?
01. We are the cause for our sufferings.
First and foremost we understand and accept that each individual is the cause for their own sufferings. For example Adam and Eve suffered because they disobeyed the commandments of God. The people of Israelites suffered because they started to worship animals as their Lord and God. King David suffered because of his sin against the Lord. Thus the sufferings are caused by their own acts. Today you and I suffer because of our own faults or mistakes. In the book of James 1:14 we read that “each one is tempted and suffered when he or She is carried away and enticed by his or her own lust”. Hence, we are the cause for our sufferings.
Who inflicts suffering on us? God? or Satan?
02. Satan is the cause for our sufferings
In the life of job we find that Satan is the sole cause for his sufferings. The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. “However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.” So the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.” thus Satan began to cause lots of sufferings on Job but in all these sufferings job did not sin also he did not curse or blame God. Also in the new testament Satan tempted Jesus to suffer in the desert but He did not sin rather he overcame Satan by the power of God. So sometimes Satan is also cause for our sins.
03. God is the cause for our sufferings
In the book of Ecclesiastes 7:14 we read that “In the day of prosperity be happy, But in the day of adversity consider God has made the one (Joy) as well as the other (sufferings). So that man will not discover anything that will be after him. So happiness and sufferings comes from the Lord.
Why God does allow sufferings on his creation?
In the beginning we are all created in the image and likeness of God but due to our selfishness we have lost our true image of God. So to bring us back to the same image and likeness of God, God allows sufferings on human beings. In the book of prophet Isaiah 48:10 we find that “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction and sufferings”. Thus, God uses sufferings in order to choose us, as His children.
When we undergo sufferings how do we react?
01. Basically we are afraid of sufferings
Whether you are sinner or holy, educated or uneducated poor or rich everyone on this earth undergo some kinds of sufferings in their lives. Instead of fighting against sufferings many people flight away from the sufferings. The today’s psychologists say that from the childhood we are not trained to accept the sufferings. for example those days there were normal delivery for all the woman; during this time every mother will undergo the pangs of birth to bring forth their child to the world; so also the child in return coming to the new world it finds difficult to breath. In order to survive on this earth the baby undergoes lots of sufferings to breathe and to open its eyes. Thus the child learns to adopt and accept the sufferings for his survival. But today most of the mothers being afraid of the pangs of birth they inject with medicines and not knowing the pains of birth they bring forth their children into the world. So also after the birth to adopt the new situation the child too injected or kept in the incubator for his survival. Thus the child without any pain or difficulty it breaths normally and opens eyes quickly. Thus from the time of birth today’s children do not adopt itself to the pains and sufferings of the world.
Also after the birth when the children are sent to school there too they don’t experience pain and sufferings. For example those days the children will be doing all the assignments of the school but today all the assignments of the children are either done by the parents or the shop keepers. Also parents too wish that their children should not or must not undergo any amount sufferings. Without any difficulty parents wants to grow their children. Thus when the child grows up it finds difficult to accept the pain and sufferings. Thus instead of fighting against the sufferings, our children are flight from sufferings. And basically we are afraid of our own sufferings. When we are afraid of sufferings we try to blame God and People.
02. We blame God for our sufferings
Most of the times we blame God for our own sufferings. For example the people of Israel blamed God for their sufferings. Prophet Jonah blamed God for his sufferings “O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” Jonah 4:3&8. Thus Jonah tells to God that he does not want to undergo any amount of sufferings. Death is better than the sufferings. Instead of fighting against the suffering he tries to flee from the sufferings.
03. We blame others for our sufferings
Dear friends since we do not have the capacity to accept the sufferings we blame others for our sufferings. Adam blamed Eve for his sufferings and Eve blamed Satan for her sufferings. Today you and I blame others for our sufferings. For example the parents tell because of my children I am suffering, and children say because of my parents I am suffering, daughter in law says I suffer because of my mother in laws and Vs.
So dear friends, most of the time during our sufferings we are left alone. Because of our loneliness, sufferings are added to our life. Today many of the people commit suicide not because of the sufferings and pain rather because of their loneliness in the time of sufferings. But today Jesus invites all of us to have courage in the time of our sufferings and to feel the presence of God in times of sufferings. In the first reading though prophet Jeremiah suffered a lot yet he boldly proclaims that tells ‘The LORD is with me like a dread champion; therefore my persecutors will not prevail over me. And I am not ashamed of my enemies or of my sufferings because the Lord is with me as a warrior’.
And in the second reading St. Paul tells us that though Adam and Eve lived in the presence of God yet they were not able to feel the presence of God but they felt the presence of Satan and listened to Satan. Thus they suffered a lot and encountered death. Whereas during the time of sufferings Jesus felt the presence of God and obeyed the will of the father thus he overcame his sufferings. Hence today all those people who fell the presence of God in the times of their own sufferings surely they too will overcome their sufferings. Also, Jesus assures us to be bold enough to take up all kinds of sufferings in our life. Because He tells us that “I am with you till the end of the world”. So dear friends when you encounter pain, problems and sufferings etc. do not say “Oh! I have big suffering but you say Oh! Sufferings I have big God. The moment you feel the presence of God in your sufferings surely you can overcome your sufferings.
Be courageous in the time of sufferings…
May God bless us all.
|
