Suffering
In my many years in the mechanical trades, I have had to deal with the movement and transfer of liquids. During my apprenticeship, I studied the science of liquids from their movement to their changes of states and their properties. Water itself is an incredible creation by God because of its uniqueness. Water has an incredible ability to absorb heat and then the ability to hold that heat and release it slowly. This is why we use it in heating our homes and many other industrial uses. There is one issue with water which we deal with in all heating systems and that is it will always choose the path of least resistance. If you have ever heard someone complain about one part of their house being cold, and asking why the other part is warm, it is because of this very property of water. The flow will always go the easier path. This is why we use control valves and special fittings to balance the water so the heat from the water can be distributed in a more even way. We actually are asking the water to do something it does not want to do. In a sense, we cause the water to suffer to perform its task. Our own suffering in this life does this for us.
We also love the path of least resistance, but that path may not be the path we are meant to be on. Why does Jesus come down on Peter so hard? Because he heard this very temptation before from Satan in the desert:
Save yourself. Do not give up your life for others. Since you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Show your power. Be the Christ. You keep talking about your heavenly Father: doesn’t he want you to carry out your mission instead of suffering and being killed?
The devil’s enticements had the same point that Peter’s does in today’s Gospel. Jesus absolutely could have chosen the easier path but that is not why His Father sent him. His suffering is what brings about our very salvation. It is through our own suffering we are brought along the path Christ means us to be on. Saint John of the Cross compared it to a green log in the fireplace. When a green log is placed in a fire, it doesn’t start to burn immediately. It first needs to be dried out. Thus, for a long time, it lies in the fire and sizzles, its greenness and dampness slowly drying out. Only when it reaches kindling temperature can it ignite and burst into flame. We also can be tempered through suffering to burst into the flame of faith Christ calls us to be.
We need to remember one thing is that we never suffer alone. Christ is always with us. Always helping us through. It is as the line in the first reading today says:
The Lord GOD is my help; therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
There’s a line in Jewish apocalyptic literature, which, helps answer this question of suffering: every tear brings the messiah closer!
May Jesus live in our hearts forever.
Deacon Chris