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Jesus and Suffering

The experience of suffering is common to all of us. No one goes through life without bearing the weight of the cross. As Christians we believe that the burden of the cross is shared by Jesus. During the last few days of his life Jesus came to know the pain of suffering in its many forms and with great intensity.

Throughout his trial and crucifixion Jesus endured terrible physical pain. His body was torn apart by scourging, thorns, nails and the weight of the cross. The strain on his limbs while he hung on the cross must have been immense. Hundreds of years earlier a psalmist had foretold the experience of the suffering servant when he wrote, “All my body is sick, spent and utterly crushed.” Crucifixion was indeed a cruel form of torture and death, the most shameful in the ancient world.

Then there was the emotional suffering. During those last days of his life Jesus must have felt rejection and great loneliness. The very people he had come to help, those he had served tirelessly and patiently, now turned their backs on him. The same crowds who had hailed him as king on Palm Sunday now acted as if they did not know him or want anything to do with him. In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “He was rejected and despised by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Is.53:3). This rejection must have been very painful for Jesus. We all need to know that we are accepted, yet here was Jesus experiencing that awful feeling that neither he nor his ministry were understood.

The experience of rejection brings with it the pain of loneliness. For Jesus, this loneliness was intense because even his closest friends deserted him. Yes, his own group of companions, the ones who lived with him, eat with him, travelled the roads with him, witnessed his miracles, heard his stories and shared his most intimate secrets also abandoned him and even denied that they knew him. On the night of his arrest Jesus was left completely alone without the human support and comfort which is so important to all of us especially at difficult times in our lives.

For Jesus, as indeed for many of the saints who came after him, the most intense form of suffering was surely darkness of spirit. It is the suffering experienced by the psalmist who prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.” To describe this form of suffering is difficult. It is an inner darkness which comes over the mind and heart leaving them without any sense of the presence of God or of consolation. St John of the Cross, the Carmelite mystic, called it, ‘the dark night of the spirit.’ Whatever way we attempt to describe this experience, it is certain that trust in God is all there left to hold on to. The ways Jesus suffered are no different to ours. Holy Week offers us an opportunity to unite our sufferings with his and indeed to draw inspiration and strength from his example.

True Religion

It seems to me that much of religious practice is about our attempts to earn God’s approval and God’s favour. We use rituals and good works to win God’s love. We see these rituals and good works as requirements for pleasing God. But there can also be something else about our religious practice, something perhaps more subtle. It is this. Our religious practice can make us feel that we are better than others. It can feed our egos.

This seems to be what the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is about. The Pharisee was trying to earn God’s love by pointing out all the meritorious things he was doing. But he was also judging the tax collector beside him. In his prayer he said to God, “I am doing good things, this tax collector isn’t. I am better than him. I deserve your love, he doesn’t.” In contrast, the tax collector’s prayer was very different. He said to God, “I am a failure. I haven’t done anything to deserve your love. Have mercy on me. I need you to love me unconditionally.”

Interestingly, what Jesus describes in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector is the very same thing he describes in the story of the father and his two sons, known as the Story of the Prodigal. In this story the elder son who was the dutiful, obedient and dependable son said to his father, “Look, for years, I have done all these things for you. But my wasteful and reckless brother, your youngest son, has done absolutely nothing. I am better than him. I have earned your love, he hasn’t.” In contrast, the younger son said to his father, “I have made a mess of my life, I have lost all the money you gave me, I have failed, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” What was the father’s response to both? It was this: “Neither of you have to earn my love. It is free. My love for you is gift, not achievement. It is unconditional.”

We are all carrying a very deep wound within us. It is the wound of conditional love. This wound is the cause of our low self-esteem. It makes us feel bad about ourselves. It creates our negative attitudes towards others. It also has us believe that love is not free, that it has to be earned. In the religion of Jesus God’s love is pure gift, offered without conditions and requirements. If we are taking Jesus seriously we need to stop trying to earn God’s love because we do not need to earn God’s love. Jesus is adamant: “My Father’s love is not something that can be earned. It is something that you just need to accept. Let yourself be loved freely. If you don’t, you may end up arrogant like the Pharisee and angry like the elder son.”

Only unconditional love can heal the wound of conditional love. True religion is about exposing ourselves to the unconditional love of God. This is the religion of Jesus.

Climbing a Mountain

You may have had the experience of climbing a mountain. Two things are helpful if you are to be a mountain climber. The first has to do with determination. Before you set off you have to make up your mind that, come what may, you are going to persevere until you reach the top. Having a strong determination means that when you meet obstacles and difficulties you will be able to make the necessary sacrifices to overcome them.

The second thing that is helpful when you are climbing a mountain is the knowledge that a whole new vista opens up to you at the summit. At the top of a mountain you experience a great sense of achievement and fulfilment. But you also see the world below in an entirely new way. Your view of the world is unimpeded, a full 360 degrees. Indeed, on the mountaintop not only do you experience the world differently, you also experience yourself differently. You feel good about yourself and who you are.

The season of Lent reminds us that the Christian life is a lot like climbing a mountain. To live as a follower of Jesus we need a strong determination and a willingness to make sacrifices. Living the Christian life can be quite demanding. It challenges our tendency to indulge ourselves and it invites us to respond to others in a loving way. Without a discipline of perseverance and generosity it is difficult to stay faithful to the way of Jesus.

Of course, like the journey up a mountain, the Christian journey also has a happy ending. It leads to what we call resurrection. At the end of our Christian pilgrimage in this world a whole new other world will be opened up to us. We will see in a way we have never seen before. We will see God face to face. We will see ourselves reflected in God and we will also see other people reflected in God. Indeed, we will find ourselves saying the same thing as Peter when he was enveloped by the presence of God on Mount Tabor: “Lord, it is wonderful for us to be here. Let this be our home forever” (see Matthew 17:4).

What often helps mountain climbers persevere is an eye on the summit. If they keep looking up to the mountaintop, the goal of their efforts, they are more likely to succeed in their climb. Likewise, it is important for us as we struggle to remain faithful to the Gospel not to lose sight of the destination of our journey; heaven and a share in the risen life of Jesus.

A Programme for Lent

It is no secret that the religion of Jesus can be summed up in the word love. In his Sermon on the Mount he focuses on three things which could be described as a practical programme to help us grow in love. These are the three things the Christian Churches invite its members to practise in earnest each year during the season of Lent. They could be described as the non-negotiable essentials of the Christian religion. They are prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

“When you pray, go to your private room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is in that secret place” (Matt 6:6). What a beautiful and accessible description of the activity of prayer! Spend time on your own with your Father. During this time thank him for his presence in your life and for looking after you. Talk to him in a personal way about what is happening in your life. Ask him for the things you need, especially the things you need to help you develop a loving heart. And, perhaps most importantly of all, hear him tell you that he loves you unconditionally, as you are. For Jesus prayer is nothing more and nothing less than our personal act of surrender to the Father; to the Father’s love, to his help, to his healing.

Perhaps the thing we most associate with Lent is fasting. Jesus understood the value of fasting and promoted it in his teaching. He knew there is a tendency in human nature towards attachment and addiction that is not healthy and balanced. Jesus wants us to keep our hearts mellow and grateful. To keep our hearts mellow and grateful it is not enough to give up things like sweets and alcohol. We need to control our desire for possessions, power and popularity. As Jesus himself discovered during his retreat in the desert these are potent demons in the human heart that need to be tamed. Fasting is unfashionable today. Yet never has it been so necessary. In the so-called first world which is mainly nominally Christian we are now the most indebted, obese, addicted and medicated generation in history. Jesus’ teaching on fasting has the power to improve our health, our relationships and our environment.

The third thing the Lenten season invites us to practise is almsgiving. Jesus insisted that we care for those in need and that we do this without looking for a reward. We can look at almsgiving in the specific sense of offering practical help to those who are hungry or homeless or without clothes. But we also need to look at it in the much broader sense of our attitude to life. Our lives are not just about ourselves and our own needs. Our lives are for others too. When we serve others we are making a difference to their lives. We are also making a difference to our own. It is a truth that unless and until we give our lives away to others we do not seem to have them ourselves at any deep level.

Ash Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday the annual Christian fasting season, known as Lent, begins. Most world religions have an annual fasting season. The Christian one lasts for forty days and significantly coincides with spring. There are many reasons why it is good for Christians to have the fasting season of Lent. Here are a few.

Lent offers us an opportunity to start again, to make a new beginning. Failing and falling are part of the human condition. In the Christian view of life, failing and falling should never be a cause for despondency or despair. The God of Jesus is a God of abundant mercy and radical forgiveness, a God who wipes out past failures and invites us to make a fresh start. We should never be reluctant to begin again. Indeed, our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail. New beginnings are a necessary part of the Christian journey. They are always life-giving.

Lent is also an ideal time to restore the balance in our lives. Virtue is the happy medium, the golden mean. But the golden mean is hard to achieve. There is a tendency in human nature to over indulge, to develop addictions, to abuse our bodies, to become overly preoccupied with work, to neglect important relationships, to put too much emphasis on our material needs and not enough on our emotional and spiritual needs. Lent provides us with an opportunity to get back to a healthy diet – a healthy diet of food, of exercise, of relaxation, of prayer. Restoring the balance in our lives helps us to sort out our priorities, to decide what is good for us and what is not good for us.

Lent is the Christian fasting season which means that it should be focused on Jesus who is the Christ. There is really only one yardstick with which to measure the success of our Lenten fasting: Does it enable us to become more like Jesus? To use the language of St Paul, the goal of Lent is to get rid of the ‘old man’ who is the selfish me and to put on the ‘New Man’ who is the loving Christ. Ultimately, Lent is about Jesus, not about us. It is about Jesus’ vision of life, his values and the building of his Kingdom in the world. Therefore, the best type of fasting we can do in Lent is the fasting that helps us to pay greater attention to Jesus and move closer to him.

Candlemas

Traditionally the second day of February was called Candlemas. It seems that with ever-lengthening days by early February people used one less candle to light the household at night.

In the past candles were essential sources of light during the hours of darkness. Today candles, though not as essential, are still popular. They are used for decoration, but also to create atmosphere. In the Christian tradition candles have always been used as an important symbol of faith. The candle is a simple reminder that Jesus rose from the darkness of death, that he is alive as our risen Lord and that he is constantly present with us lighting our way to our Father’s house. The candle is also a symbol of our baptism. When we were baptised we were received into the glow and warmth of God’s love and became followers of Jesus.

Of course in the Christian tradition candles are used as aids to prayer. They help us express to God what is going on in our hearts. When we light a candle at a shrine in a church we are placing a personal intention, something dear to us, into God’s care and protection. What is more, we are also making an offering of ourselves and our daily activities to God.

The symbolism of using a candle as an offering of our lives to God is powerfully significant. It suggests that our offering creates light. This is what happened at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple which we recall each year on 2^nd February. When Mary and Joseph offered Jesus to the Father they were told that the offering they were making would become the light not just of their own lives but of the whole world. The old man Simeon made this prophecy: “My eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:30).

Both the flame of a tiny candle and the words of Simeon are reminders to us that every gift of ourselves, every act of generosity, every sacrifice we make creates light, a light which lights up the darkness in our world, a light the darkness cannot overcome. It is indeed much better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Filling the Hole

Whether we are aware of it or not there is a huge hole inside of each of us that we are constantly trying to fill, often without success. This hole has a major influence on the way we live our lives. Our problem is we try to fill this hole with the wrong things. We think that things like possessions and work and popularity will take away our inner ache and satisfy our longing for happiness. The truth is they don’t. Accumulation, achievement and our need for the approval of others cannot fill our empty hole. To believe otherwise is an illusion and a false philosophy. We human beings have a terrible habit of looking for happiness in the wrong places.

The hole inside of us can only be filled by love. It is love, in fact it is unconditional love, that takes away our inner restlessness. This is why God is the only one who can fill our empty hole. Only God is unconditional love. God loves without requirements and without restrictions. To let ourselves be loved as we are by God is the only way to satisfy the yearning in our hearts.

To let myself be loved unconditionally by God is to know that I am enough. When I am able to say, ‘I am enough’ I am able to say, ‘I have enough.’ If I am not able to say, ‘I am enough’ I will continue to want more. I will want more and more possessions, information, success, recognition, approval, power. To be able to say, ‘I have enough’ is a sign that I am filling my inner hole with the right kind of love.

Of course the culture we live in today does not make it easy for us to say, ‘I have enough.’ Our culture is driven by capitalist and consumerist philosophies; by making money and spending money. It is notable how often we are referred to in the media as consumers. Our culture is also driven by a work ethic that has us measure our worth by what we do, by our achievements and successes. Then there is the impact of social media sites like Facebook that feed our desire for attention and the approval of others. There are powerful forces at work in our lives that want us to fill the hole we have inside with the wrong things. It takes a lot of self-awareness to recognise these forces and much courage to say ‘no’ to them.

There are two ways to fill the hole we have inside. One works, the other doesn’t. The decision is ours to make!

The Messenger

One of the great Advent figures is John the Baptist. John was a prophet and he has some helpful things to teach us about how to prepare for Christmas. Let me mention three all beginning with the letter S.

John was single-minded. The focus of his life was Jesus. He had come to prepare the way for Jesus and to point Jesus out when he came. John let nothing distract him from centering his life on Jesus. At this time of year there is a danger we would forget that Jesus is the reason for the season. We need to try to keep Jesus at the centre of our Christmas preparations and celebrations. If we don’t, Christmas will leave us with a sense of disappointment and perhaps even emptiness.

We are told that John the Baptist lived out in the desert. He sought silence. Silence helped John not only to reflect but, more importantly, to listen to his heart. In listening to his heart John knew he was listening to God. Silence enabled John to experience solitude. Solitude is finding the Presence of God within. It is prayer experienced as friendship. Like John we too need times of silence in our lives, especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas. How else can we glimpse the great wonder of God becoming human in a helpless, vulnerable child? Without silence Christmas can be a superficial experience.

John also lived a simple life. The scriptures tell us that he wore a camel skin and ate locusts and wild honey. There was no excess baggage, no clutter or waste in John’s life. His life was focused on the essentials. John’s example is an important one for us who live in a consumerist culture that is in overdrive for months before Christmas. It often feels as if the real religion at Christmas is shopping. Of course it is a good thing at Christmas to give presents. Gifts are an expression of our love and appreciation of others. But there is so much needless spending and waste at Christmas. Waste is offensive to the poor. It also distracts us from the things that really matter – our relationships. The investment we make in building relationships is much more important than our investment in material possessions.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas John the Baptist’s message to us is clear. Don’t forget that Jesus is the reason for the season, create a little time for silence and put relationships before possessions.

We have a King

For the majority of people the days of being governed by a king are long gone. In most parts of the world kingships and kingdoms have given way to governments and democracies. For this reason we are no longer familiar and perhaps even comfortable with what it means to be ruled by a king. For this reason too Christians may find it difficult to relate to the idea that Jesus is our King. If we are able to move beyond any initial reaction we may have we can come to see that the kingship of Jesus is a powerful and beautiful reality in the life of the Christian community.

To have Jesus as our King means that we have someone to look up to, someone who can inspire and guide us. It means too that we have someone who is in control of our lives, someone with power. To know that there is a powerful person in control of our lives makes us feel safe and secure; it also gives us confidence.

Of course there is a particular aspect to the kingship of Jesus that we need to keep in mind. The Gospel tells us that Jesus is the person to whom we must give an account of ourselves when we die. In other words, Jesus and Jesus only is the one who will judge us. But what will Jesus our King base his judgement on? Practical love. Did we care for those in need? Did we feed the hungry? Did we visit the sick and the lonely? Did we clothe the naked? Did we practise what used to be called the corporal works of mercy? St John of the Cross, the Carmelite poet and mystic puts it well, “In the evening of life we will be examined in love.”

It is inspiring and encouraging for us to know that Jesus, our King, leads by example. He does not ask us to do something that he did not do himself. Jesus fed the hungry, he cured the sick, he befriended lepers and social outcasts, he comforted those who felt lost. Jesus was a servant king; in fact, Jesus still is a servant king. Jesus continues to identify himself with the poor, the weak, the unloved. Indeed, in some mysterious way Jesus is actually present in them. “As long as you did this to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did it to me” (Matt 25:40). We meet Jesus in our neighbour and we serve Jesus in our neighbour. This is why Jesus, our King, will judge us on how we treat others, especially those who are most vulnerable.

Using our Talents

I have heard it said that most people only use 10% of their talent. This means that 90% of our potential lies dormant and unfulfilled. If this is true it is certainly a sad and disturbing statistic.

Why do we fail to develop and use our God-given gifts and talents? In The Parable of the Talents which we find in Matthew’s Gospel (25:14-30) Jesus seems to mention two reasons. One is fear. Fear is a very powerful emotional force in our lives. It makes us cautious; it paralyses us; it prevents us from doing the things we know are good for us. Someone once said to me that the devil has no power but fear. The devil uses fear to hold us back, to keep us from changing and growing. The devil certainly uses fear to stop us developing our potential. If there are fears in our lives it is important that we name what these fears are. When we are willing and able to name our fears they lose much of their power over us. It is with good reason that Jesus is constantly saying to us: “Have courage, do not be afraid. I am with you.”

The other reason for not developing and using our gifts and talents that is mentioned in the gospel parable is laziness. What can we say about laziness? It is certainly easier to make a case for fear than for laziness! Laziness possibly comes from a lack of motivation and self-confidence. It is also linked with poor self-discipline. Significantly, we tend to have a negative reaction to the person who is lazy. Perhaps this is because those who do not pull their weight offend our sense of justice. But perhaps it is also because we do not like wasted talent. It is awful to see talent going to waste because the person who has it just cannot be bothered. The lazy servant who buried his talent in the ground in the gospel parable had it taken away from him and given to someone else who would use it.

In a welfare society it can become too easy for people not to use their gifts and talents. There are people who genuinely need the benefits the State gives them, especially at particular times in their lives. But when dependency on State benefits becomes a way of life it tends to deaden initiative and bury much needed talent.