Thursday after Ash Wednesday

“The Son of man must suffer many things[…]”¹

What must we do in life? As the old saying goes, “There are only three things you must do in life: be born, die, and pay taxes.” I don’t think anyone actually lives like that though. We all have hopes, desires, expectations, plans, responsibilities, schedules, etc. The most needful things are the ones we have or feel like we have control over and that affect our happiness. If something affects our happiness negatively – not just our feeling of joy or contentment – and we have no control over it we should probably reexamine why it seems so important.

When we hear Jesus say that He “must” suffer, how are we to understand that need? If suffering has nothing to do with Jesus’ happiness, why is he so intent upon it? The finality with which Jesus speaks of his destiny is off-putting when we consider that as God He is in complete control over everything. Why should God have to do anything at all? It doesn’t make sense. What’s worse, God says He has to suffer and that I should follow Him in that way. The cross is literally torture, and Jesus is telling us to willingly accept torture the same as He did.

Most of us hear these words about needing to suffer and react like Peter, “Don’t be ridiculous Jesus, you are in charge here, you are performing miracles, you are more powerful and wiser than anyone who has ever lived. Oh, and by the way, you created me with a body, soul, and spirit that were by nature set to hate, flee, and fight any suffering that comes my way. How could you expect me to go along with suffering when you designed me to do otherwise?”

Jesus takes the consequences of sin upon Himself. The consequences are suffering and death. In saving us, He gives these consequences a new purpose where they had none. Though God doesn’t need us, He has willingly involved us in His own happiness. Jesus needed to suffer for us to increase the intimacy of His compassion and manifest the fullness of His Love. He needed to transform human suffering from something pointless into the means by which the heart is stretched and expanded to greater and greater love. When we follow Jesus into his passion, carrying our own crosses, let us allow our hearts to be stretched and dilated by the Holy Spirit, surrendering into the arms of our loving Savior.

Quotes:

“For we must deny ourselves and take up the cross of Christ and thus follow him. Now self-denial involves the entire forgetfulness of the past and surrender of one’s will—surrender which it is very difficult, not to say quite impossible, to achieve while living in the promiscuity customary in the world.”²

Footnotes

Lk 9:22.
Basil the Great, The Long Rules,

Daily Readings

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
by USCCB on November 23, 2024 at 9:30 am
Reading Rv 11:4-12 I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10 R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!Blessed be the LORD, my rock,who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!My mercy and my fortress,my stronghold, my deliverer,My shield, in whom I trust,who subdues my people under me.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!O God, I will sing a new song to you;with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,You who give victory to kings,and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! Alleluia See 2 Tm 1:10 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 20:27-40 Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything. Readings for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, priest and martyrReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Columban, abbotReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Clement I, pope and martyr - - - Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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