Sweet amid bitter
Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message
June 22, 2016
“The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be
scattered, each to your own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not
alone, for the Father is with me. I have said this to you, that in me you
may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But be of
good cheer: I have overcome the world.” (John 16:30-33)
The strange thing about this saying
of Jesus in John’s Gospel is that Jesus is pictured saying it at the very
moment when he knows he will be delivered over to the Romans for death.
“I have overcome the world,” right as it seems that the world has overcome
him.
This upside down, topsy-turvy take
on the world and suffering is reflected in other sayings by Jesus: “your
pain will turn into joy” (John 16:20), “to gain life, you must first lose it
(Luke 9:23), and “pick up your cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
An old Zen story tells of a traveler
who is surprised by a tiger. He runs, the tiger pursuing. Coming to
a cliff, the man grabs a vine and swings down over the edge. The tiger
waits above, sniffing at the suspect vine. The man looks down: there, far
below, is another tiger looking up, waiting to eat him. Then, to
make things worse, two mice, one white and one black, start to gnaw away at the
vine! The man notices a small wild strawberry growing in the rock beside
him. With his one free hand, he reaches out to pluck and eat the
berry. How sweet it tasted!
Suffering is hard. It takes
patience when all our resources are used up. It takes hope when no more
hope is left. Graceful suffering means not regretting what has been lost,
but focusing on what little we are able to do. It means letting go of
trying to control outcomes, and only thinking about what next step we must
take.
George MacDonald wrote, “The Son of
God suffered unto death, not that man might not suffer, but that their
suffering might be like his.” Praying to a God who has
suffered, and indeed, still suffers, helps us meet what we cannot avoid.
Knowing that Jesus is right there on the cross along with us helps us see
with him the victory even when things seem darkest.
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
No comments:
Post a Comment