My dear people:

One of the most common arguments against God and religion is the argument of suffering.  People say that if God really existed, and if he really were a good God, he wouldn't allow so much suffering in the world.  And when we hear that argument, our initial reaction is to agree.  But that is at the very least most superficial and illogical argument.  Today, Christ Himself gives us an answer to the problem.   He raises our eyes to His cross.  Today's Gospel alerts us to the saving legacy of the cross and the Gospel’s demand that we imitate our Lord in picking up the cross and walk behind Him.   The truth is: Christ saved the entire fallen human race not by eliminating the suffering that our own sin unleashed in the world, but by taking that suffering upon himself.  He who never sinned allowed Himself to be punished with every conceivable kind of suffering, to the point of crucifixion.  

In the final analysis, suffering on earth is not the worst thing that can happen to us.  We know that for certain, because Jesus Himself suffered, and he was God.  The worst thing that can happen is to be separated from friendship with God.  The worst possible thing that might happen even to us is that we might lose God!  That's what sin does.  What Jesus did on the cross was to reconcile us with God and to win back our friendship with Him.  On the cross our Blessed Lord reversed the curse Adam and Eve had incurred!  On the cross, our Blessed Lord demonstrated to us that He truly loves us, that we are precious to Him, that we are not nothing!!!  And because we are not nothing, on the cross, our Blessed Lord showed us that suffering, if born through faith in Him, is the way for us to have part in Christ’s redemptive work, to share again in friendship with God.   Hence John 3:16!  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”  God gave His only Son for this one purpose: so that He might take all the things wrong with the world and nail it to the cross, i.e., to die on the cross!  The Son of God became flesh for this, and we were born for this.  And because of this we can always count on the fact that we never have to suffer alone.

Christ's crucifixion happened a long time ago.  The separation of time and space is nothing for God!   But it might feel as though nothing did really happen!   But faith tells us otherwise!  Every time holy Mass is celebrated, the curtain of time is torn in two, ripped opened, and Christ's sacrifice on the cross on Calvary is made present right here in our midst.  The consecrated Host truly contains the real presence of our Lord - body, blood, soul, and divinity.  And so, Jesus himself, through this amazing sacrament of the Eucharist, is not only within us through grace and the Holy Spirit, but He remains with us in all the specific times and places of history, so that He can always accompany us in any circumstance and under any condition!  Because Christ has guaranteed that nobody has to suffer alone, and so, when discouraged, frustrated, exhausted, or sorrowful and weighed down by the heavy cross, we can come and kneel before Him in the tabernacle, where the red sanctuary lamp burns 24/7.  We commemorated September 11 this past week.  And I could remember how packed to chapel at Maxwell AFB was that following Sunday!  When people had nowhere to go, some of them indeed go to God, and God is always here waiting for them!  But Jesus goes even further.  At every Mass in Holy Communion, we can actually receive Him as food, comfort, and strength.  The Lord of the universe doesn't want us to suffer alone.  He wants to suffer with us, to accompany us, to give meaning to our sufferings, to make sufferings the source of wisdom, grace, and salvation.  He wants us to share in the fruits of the redeeming cross.   “Behold the Lamb of God!  Behold Him who takes away the sins of the world!  Blessed are they who are invited to the Supper of the Lamb!”

We are the blessed ones, if this knowledge takes roots in us!  And this blessing we receive are not meant for us alone!  As Christian, we have a mandate, we have a duty, we have the most serious obligation to spread the blessed knowledge of this tremendous love of God.  John 3:16!  To evangelize, to witness the Gospel, is to tell people that they don’t have to suffer alone.   The Good News of Jesus Christ the Crucified One is Good to the extent that, by living it, suffering engenders hope.  The Good News is good because we by hearing it we know we are not alone and we are not dead-enders and that there is a purpose and a reason for everything and that we are born for this: this cross at this moment and so we rise to the challenged and we rise to the occasion and we are not afraid!  
 
There are untold number of people suffering alone right now.   Some are struggling with chronic illnesses.  Some are reeling under the weight of a devastating news of a terrible diagnosis.  Some are frustrated because nobody gives a damn.  Some are feeling defeated and lost, because a sense of hopelessness has set in.  Some are struggling to stay alive but feel the walls are closing in on them.  And many don’t even know there is God who love them and have plan for each of them.
 
God does not leave us orphaned.  We, who know that and experience that, we are indeed the most fortunate.  And it’s our turn to be Christ for those who are still living lives disconnected with God, walking alone in the dark.  This is how Christ wants to be near to those who don’t know how to reach out to Him.  Now it’s our turn to be Christ for others, to extend to them the good news of His triumph over sin and death, to help Christ become incarnate again through and in our love for others so that they too might be touched by His presence and His nearness.  The calling to be Christ for the world and for those who live in darkness is our privilege and out most serious duty.  One day last week at Mass, the Lord prompted me with a thought: to establish in our parish officially a new ministry: St. Agatha’s prayer chain.  My old parish in Vernonia has had this ministry for decades and it has been lifesaving for many in those god-forsaken parts of the state!  We have always have people here praying for each other, but perhaps the time has come for something more publicly supported and sanctioned by the pastoral authority!  Not only do we pray for the sick who ask for our prayers, we shall be Christ to them literally by walking with them in their struggles through our thinking, our fasting, our doing charitable works in their names and for their perseverance.

Padre