Readings: Is 53:10-11; Heb 4:14-16; Mk 10:35-45
In the first reading we are given a small section of the last of the four “Suffering Servant Songs” from the Prophet Isaiah. Today’s reading begins with a statement that sounds horrible: “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.” If we take this statement out of context it would seem to portray God as being sadistic and taking pleasure in watching someone suffer. There is nothing that can be further from the truth, but sometimes in our own suffering we might be tempted to think strange things about the Lord.
To provide the proper context, we need to read the next line where we recognize the free will of the one who is made to suffer. It says: “If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.” In other words, the Lord is not merely heaping suffering on this person, rather, this person is cooperating with the Lord to accomplish something great. The result will be profound blessings for the person suffering as well as for all those for whom the suffering was offered.
At the time these words were written it was known they were about the Messiah, but who the Messiah would be was not known. We, of course, have that knowledge today and are able to put the pieces together to recognize these statements to be about our Lord, Jesus our High Priest, the Son of God Who has passed through the heavens. In the second reading, St. Paul explains another aspect of our Lord’s suffering by saying He is able to sympathize with our weakness because He was tested in every way we are, but never sinned.
This act of suffering as an offering for our sins gives us confidence, St. Paul says, “to approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” In other words, the suffering of Jesus is what draws Him near to us and, if we will cooperate, it is what draws us near to Him.
As we see, our Lord’s sufferings did not take away our weaknesses nor did they remove the necessity for us to be tested. Rather, the sufferings of our Lord unite Him to us and, because they were borne out of love for us, they open the way for us to approach Him, not with fear and trembling, but with confidence to receive the assistance we need.
This need for assistance is profound because if our Lord’s suffering unites Him to us, then our participation in that same suffering unites us to Him. Needless to say, we cannot do this by our own strength or power. In fact, it would be foolish to even try to suffer alone since the suffering we endure is a share in the suffering of Jesus. He does not abandon us in our suffering, but He remains united with us and draws even closer. The problem is that we sometimes abandon Him in our suffering and, rather than drawing closer, we pull away.
In the Gospel, Jesus told James and John that they would drink the cup He drinks and they would be baptized with the same baptism with which He would be baptized. Note again, this is not just a statement that they would need to suffer, but it is a participation in the suffering of our Lord. It is not merely that they would have their own cup of suffering or cleansing through their suffering; it is the same cup and the same baptism as our Lord’s. This should help us to see that it is a privilege to suffer, because we are suffering with Jesus.
However, if we are suffering with our Lord, then we are suffering for the same purpose. As we described above, the freely chosen suffering of the Servant of the Lord is an offering for sin to accomplish the will of God. If you are willing to accept your sufferings and offer them to God, then you are participating in and continuing the work of redemption brought about through our Lord’s suffering. This will bring you very close to Him because you are uniting yourself with Him, not only in His suffering, but in His work as the Savior and the Redeemer.
This means the words of the first reading can be applied to you by extension. You are the suffering servant, united to The Suffering Servant. Jesus bore our guilt and justified us, now we can work so others can be justified. If you will share in the suffering of Jesus, then the blessing given to the Servant of the Lord will also be yours: with Jesus, you will see the light in fullness of days!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
