Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Suffering is quite naturally the least appealing part of human experience. Suffering isn’t just pain, it isn’t just a physical experience, it isn’t just sadness. Suffering applies to every way we are deprived of what is good. Sin is suffering because by choosing what seems to be good over what is really good, we deprive ourselves. Jesus takes all forms of human suffering upon Himself so that we may never find ourselves alone when we suffer. Jesus even takes upon Himself the suffering due to sin – though He Himself never sinned. He allowed Himself to be condemned and punished as a criminal, as a sacrifice – the Innocent One – so that we sinners might find refuge in Him. The One who was without sin became sin so that He might destroy it once and for all in His flesh. His body, broken on the Cross, is the image of our broken soul – broken by sin and suffering. The divinity of Christ – a sure support and powerful force of healing – carries the brokenness and weakness of Christ’s flesh all the way through His death to the Resurrection.

Christ invites us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. If we want to obey Him, we don’t need to go looking for our cross as though it were some new thing or activity. The cross is with us wherever we go, it is the weight of our condemnation for sin. The cross is a burden too heavy to bear: suffering we would avoid if we could. We can learn to accept suffering only by following and clinging to Jesus, Our Lord and Master. Instead of considering that we have received more suffering than we deserve, or more than we can tolerate, we can look to Jesus. He did not deserve to suffer at all, and He bore more than any other human being could tolerate. He did this not to prove He was better at suffering than we are, but to reveal how suffering – no matter how awful – is the way He saves us. He saves us not out of pity, but out of compassion. He did not save us with a strong arm from the sky, but by humbling Himself to the point of becoming just like us, even dying the death of an irremediable public sinner. The salvation Jesus offers us is the healing balm of His divine tears of love. By taking up our cross and following Him, He is with us on our journey and His tears of love and compassion rinse away the bitterness of suffering in our hearts. This rinsing away not only saves our soul, but causes the manifestation of God’s Love to radiate even further: by patiently enduring our cross with love, we help Him save the whole world.

BASIL THE GREAT:

If you remain unruffled, you silence your insolent assailant by giving him a practical illustration of self-control. Were you struck? So also was the Lord. Were you spat on? The Lord also suffered this, for “he did not turn his face from the shame of the spittle.” … You have not been condemned to death or crucified.¹

ATHANASIUS:

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes before us, when he would show [people] how to suffer, who when he was struck bore it patiently, being reviled he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not, but he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to buffetings, and he turned not his face from spitting; and at last, he was willingly led to death, that we might behold in him the image of all that is virtuous and immortal, and that we, conducting ourselves after these examples, might truly tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy.²

MACARIUS OF EGYPT:

God for your sake humbled Himself, but you, for your own sake, do not humble yourself. You are proud and puffed up. God came and took up your burden to give you His rest, but you do not wish to endure labours and suffering. By your labours your wounds are healed.³

CHRYSOSTOM:

Therefore, let none of these things that are happening trouble [you], but stop asking for the aid of this or that person and running after shadows (for such are human alliances); persistently call on Jesus, whom [you serve] … and in a moment of time all these evils will be dissolved.⁴

PROCOPIUS OF GAZA:

Isaiah also gives the name “moth” to those who devour their conscience in their recklessness.… It might be said that the moths are their sins, which worm their way in among those they inhabit, like moths devouring clothing for food. An attitude that inclines toward having no fear is indicative of a people on their way to this kind of ruin, yet who think they are indestructible. But punishment also clearly awaits them. They will be utterly consumed by misfortune as by a moth.⁵

AUGUSTINE:

In order to help them, God has put fear in the hearts of believers, lest they think that they might be saved by faith alone, even if they continue to practice these evils.⁶

OECUMENIUS:

Take note of what spiritual understanding really is. It is not enough to believe in a purely intellectual sense. There has to be some practical application for this belief. What James is saying here does not contradict the apostle Paul, who understood that both belief and action were a part of what he called “faith.”⁷

HILARY OF ARLES:

True love has two sides to it—help for the body and help for the soul. Here James concentrates on the first of these because he is speaking especially to those who are rich.⁸

BEDE:

It is obvious that words alone are not going to help someone who is naked and hungry. Someone whose faith does not go beyond words is useless. Such faith is dead without works of Christian love which alone can bring it back to life.⁹

LEO THE GREAT:

Since mercy will be exalted over condemnation and the gifts of clemency will surpass any just compensation, all the lives led by mortals and all different kinds of actions will be appraised under the aspect of a single rule. No charges will be brought up where works of compassion have been found in acknowledgment of the Creator.¹⁰

LEO THE GREAT:

While faith provides the basis for works, the strength of faith comes out only in works.¹¹

HILARY OF ARLES:

Works give life to faith, faith gives life to the soul, and the soul gives life to the body.¹²

AUGUSTINE:

How hard and painful does this appear! The Lord has required that “whoever will come after him must deny himself.” But what he commands is neither hard nor painful when he himself helps us in such a way so that the very thing he requires may be accomplished.… For whatever seems hard in what is enjoined, love makes easy.¹³

CAESARIUS OF ARLES:

What he commands is not difficult, since he helps to effect what he commands.… Just as we are lost through loving ourselves, so we are found by denying ourselves. Love of self was the ruin of the first man. If he had not loved himself in the wrong order, he would have been willing to be subject to God, preferring God to self.¹⁴

TERTULLIAN:

“Your cross” means your own anxieties and your sufferings in your own body, which itself is shaped in a way already like a cross.¹⁵

CAESARIUS OF ARLES:

What does this mean, “take up a cross”? It means he will bear with whatever is troublesome, and in this very act he will be following me. When he has begun to follow me according to my teaching and precepts, he will find many people contradicting him and standing in his way, many who not only deride but even persecute him. Moreover, this is true, not only of pagans who are outside the church, but also of those who seem to be in it visibly, but are outside of it because of the perversity of their deeds. Although these glory in merely the title of Christian, they continually persecute faithful Christians. Such belong to the members of the church in the same way that bad blood is in the body. Therefore, if you wish to follow Christ, do not delay in carrying his cross; tolerate sinners, but do not yield to them. Do not let the false happiness of the wicked corrupt you. You do well to despise all things for the sake of Christ, in order that you may be fit for his companionship.¹⁶

AUGUSTINE:

This precept by which we are enjoined to lose our life does not mean that a person should kill himself, which would be an unforgivable crime, but it does mean that one should kill that in oneself which is unduly attached to the earthly, which makes one take inordinate pleasure in this present life to the neglect of the life to come. This is the meaning of “shall hate his life” and “shall lose it.” Embedded in the same admonition, he speaks most openly of the profit of gaining one’s life when he says: “He that loses his life in this world shall find it unto life eternal.”¹⁷

CAESARIUS OF ARLES:

One who claims to abide in Christ ought to walk as he walked. Would you follow Christ? Then be humble as he was humble. Do not scorn his lowliness if you want to reach his exaltation. Human sin made the road rough. Christ’s resurrection leveled it. By passing over it himself, he transformed the narrowest of tracks into a royal highway. Two feet are needed to run along this highway; they are humility and charity. Everyone wants to get to the top—well, the first step to take is humility. Why take strides that are too big for you—do you want to fall instead of going up? Begin with the first step, humility, and you will already be climbing.¹⁸

1. HOMILY AGAINST THOSE WHO ARE PRONE TO ANGER. Elliott, M. W. (Ed.). (2007). Isaiah 40–66 (p. 131). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
2. LETTER 10.7. Elliott, M. W. (Ed.). (2007). Isaiah 40–66 (p. 132). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. FIRST SYRIAC EPISTLES 7. Elliott, M. W. (Ed.). (2007). Isaiah 40–66 (p. 132). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
4. LETTERS TO OLYMPIAS 7.2. Elliott, M. W. (Ed.). (2007). Isaiah 40–66 (p. 132). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
5. COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 50.1–11. Elliott, M. W. (Ed.). (2007). Isaiah 40–66 (p. 133). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
6. ON CONTINENCE 14.13. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 28). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
7. COMMENTARY ON JAMES. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 28). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
8. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 28). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
9. CONCERNING THE EPISTLE OF ST. JAMES. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 28). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
10. SERMONS 11.1. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 29). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
11. SERMONS 10.3. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 29). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
12. INTRODUCTORY TRACTATE ON THE LETTER OF JAMES. Bray, G. (Ed.). (2000). James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (p. 29). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
13. SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 46.1. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (pp. 105–106). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
14. SERMONS 159. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 106). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
15. ON IDOLATRY 12. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 106). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
16. SERMONS 159.5. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 106). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
17. LETTER 243, TO LAETUS. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (pp. 106–107). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
18. SERMONS 159, 1.4–6. Oden, T. C., & Hall, C. A. (Eds.). (1998). Mark (Revised) (p. 107). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.