30-Mar-2012 Dear Friend, Why do people have to suffer and die? If God is a God of love can't he prevent the suffering of innocent people? People have always asked these questions and to date have not found a meaningful answer to the problem of suffering. Suffering and Death remain a mystery to be lived not a problem to be solved! The Cross of Christ provides not an answer but points to a way to make suffering life-giving. From being an instrument of death, Jesus made it a means of love and life! Have a cross-fertilized life! May today be a 'Good' Friday for us! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: Good Friday "Having loved his own to the very end, He died for us!" 6-Apr-2012 Readings: Isaiah 52: 13-53: 12 Hebrews 4: 14-16, 5: 7-9 John 18: 1-19: 42 In todays first reading Isaiah paints a startling portrait of the suffering servant of Yahweh. This suffering servant has a dignity about himself and his spirit is intact and unbroken in the midst of all that he suffers. Physically he was abused and reduced to a subhuman condition: "There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces..." In the face of all that he suffered there is no bitterness, no anger, no resentment, no complaint. "Though he was harshly treated he submitted and opened not his mouth. Isaiah is describing not only the suffering servant but in fact he gives us a pen portrait of Jesus himself as he goes to his passion and he also gives us a model of how the Christian is called to respond to suffering. "If God knows I am worth it, that's all that matters to me." I have told you of Olwen Davies, the middle-aged district nurse who for more than twenty years, with fortitude and patience, calmness and cheerfulness, served the people of Tregenny. This unconscious selflessness, which above all seemed the keynote of her character, was so poorly rewarded, it worried me. Although she was much beloved by the people, her salary was most inadequate. And late one night after a particularly strenuous case, I ventured a protest to her as we drank a cup of tea together. "Nurse" I said, "Why don't you make them pay you more? It's ridiculous that you should work for so little." She raised her eyebrows slightly. But she smiled. "I have enough to get along." "No, really," I persisted, "you ought to have an extra pound a week at least. God knows you are worth it." There was a pause. Her smile remained, but her gaze held a gravity, an intensity which startled me. "Doctor", she said, "If God knows I am worth it, that's all that matters to me." A. J. Cronin in 'Adventures in Two Worlds' In the Gospel there are several facets of the passion we could successfully reflect upon: The agony in the garden and the fearless confrontation of Jesus with those who came to arrest him. The triple denial of Peter in the presence of a maid servant. The trial before Caiphas in the Pretorium and then his confrontation with Pilate and the lingering unanswered question: "What is truth?" We could meditate on the Way of the Cross and his final moments on the cross itself leading to his painful cry, echoed by all who suffer: "My God my God why have you forsaken me." We could ask the questions: Why did the Father permit the Son to suffer? Why does God seem to abandon Jesus? Does God abandon his people, his beloved when they suffer? For that matter is the Father oblivious to the passion of his Son and to all his sons and daughters who even now suffer in the world today? The Father was not an executioner but a fellow sufferer. This idea of the Father suffering gives us a glimpse into the mystery of human suffering, which confronts us on all sides. Suffering that is man-made like wars and terrorism and man's inhumanity to man as well as that which results from earthquakes, storms, tidal waves, viruses and so many other unexplained causes of suffering and death. The Father continues to suffer with his suffering children here on earth as he suffered with His Son Jesus Christ. While God does not always reveal his power, he always gives us the assurance of his comforting presence. We want God to be a powerful God, one who does away with all suffering. In Jesus' suffering and dying on the cross, we see as it were, an impotent God, a God who is made vulnerable precisely because he loves us is ready to suffer with us and for us. Why Death? Why death now? Why death ever? What is in store for our loved one now? What of the bereaved? Even in the presence of vibrant faith, there is often a sense of finality, of completion of an era. This atmosphere of finality pervaded Calvary on Good Friday. The great hopes of a promising life were dashed. His closest friend, John was shattered as he undertook to care for the mother who was desolate at the death of her one and only in his early thirties. What grief! What disappointment! With more care and sense, it could have been avoided. With hindsight it was easy to see that it would end in this way if he insisted on justice, forgiveness, love and peace. Now the miracle worker from Nazareth failed to come down from the Cross even though he had raised Lazarus from the dead. Dead he was now himself, the same as those who had gone before him. But not quite same. Even though he died willingly in obedience to the fathers' will, he had the power to take up his life again. That he would do at the resurrection, but first he would endure the intense pain of the human condition. He must know the loneliness of death at first hand, the sense of abandonment by God. Tom Clancy in 'Living the Word' Walk in the Footsteps of Christ A saintly man named Peter Facelano of Vienna once had a vision in which he found himself in a magnificent Cathedral. The floor of the Cathedral was very rough and filled with thorns, sharp nails and bits of broken glass. All of a sudden the main door flung open and Jesus entered and walked straight towards the high altar. As he walked he left behind him clear footprints on the floor. Behind him walked his mother, after her came the apostles and then Martyrs, confessors, virgins and other holy men and women. But he noticed that each one of them was very careful to choose the footprints of Christ and walk exactly in those footprints. As long as they did that, they walked without feeling any pain or prick from the thorns, nails or broken glasses. Suddenly a side floor was flung open and a big crowd rushed inside. They tried to rush towards the high altar but none could go very far. They cut and bruised soles of their feet so badly that they stumbled and fell to the ground bleeding. Lying prostrate on the ground, while nursing his wounds, one of them accidentally saw the footprints of Christ. Even though it was imprinted on the rough and sharp flooring he tried to place his foot on it. He felt no pain. Rising to his feet he called out, "Walk in the footprints of Christ and you will reach him easily." Anonymous Ready to Die? The final sermon that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached before he was assassinated was the famous "I have been to the mountaintop" sermon. In it he declares, "I have seen the Promised Land, I am not afraid to die, I am ready to meet my Maker." He preached this sermon in the evening; he was killed the next day. Was it coincidence that he preached those words the day before he died? Or could he have had some mystic prevision of his death? It is said he preached that sermon very often, possibly a hundred times throughout the country. Andrew Young says: "The reason that he could preach that sermon so often was that he was always ready to die." He knew that death would come any moment because of the challenge that he was continually presenting to the conscience of America. He lived life fully and fearlessly. He was convinced of the rightness and goodness of what he was doing that he wasn't afraid to die. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had found something worth dying for. And so he lived passionately. He had something worth living for. In the crucifixion Jesus did not especially teach us how to die. He taught us how to live -fearlessly and passionately. The great message of the passion of Jesus is to live passionately. We are Christian if we are consumed by a burning love; if we are on fire, with an unquenchable thirst to know, with an untiring desire for justice in our broken world. "Dive in -don't be afraid!" This is how Jesus invites us to live on the day of his passion. Flor McCarthy in 'New Sunday and Holy Days Liturgies'' He Risked His Life, All He Got Was… One night a fisherman heard a loud splash. A man on a nearby yacht had been drinking and had fallen overboard. The fisherman leapt into the cold water and rescued the man and revived him with artificial respiration. Then he put the man to bed, and did everything he could to make the man comfortable. Finally, exhausted by the ordeal, the fisherman swam back to his own boat. The next morning the fisherman returned to the yacht to see how the man was doing. "It's none of your business," the man shouted defensively. The fisherman reminded the man that he had risked his life to save him. But instead of thanking him, the man cursed the fisherman and told him that he never wanted to see him around again. Commenting on the episode, the fisherman said: "I rowed away from the yacht with tears in my eyes. But the experience was worth it, because it gave me an understanding of how Jesus felt when he was rejected by those he saved." Mark Link in 'Journey' Searching for God in Suffering One of the rabbis who went through the hell of Auschwitz was Hugo Gryn. He tells of a rabbi in his synagogue in a small village in Poland. He was trying to conduct a service on the Sabbath but one of his congregators, the local tailor was creating a disturbance, shaking his fist and muttering to himself and disturbing everyone around him. When the service was over the rabbi approached him and asked him what on earth was the matter. "Ah!" says the tailor. "I got into a terrible argument with God. I said to him, 'Look, I know I am not perfect. There have been times when I sat down and had my meal without saying the blessing or the grace. And there have been days when I have hurried through my prayers. And I must confess that I have sometimes charged people for double thread when I only use single, and sometimes I have kept a bit of cloth back to make clothes for my own children. So I'm not claiming any special privileges. But you, God! You take babies away from their mothers. Young men die on the field of battle. People are cut down before their time through illness. How can you let this happen? So, let me make a bargain with you! If you'll forgive me, I'll forgive you." And the tailor said to the rabbi, "Did I do wrong?" "My friend, you had such a strong case why did you let God off so easily?" the rabbi replied. James Feeban in 'Story Power' In the courageous acceptance of suffering may we discover the hidden power of God!
Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my web site www.netforlife.net Thank you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
