What suffering?

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050225.cfm

Photo by Virginia Berbece on Unsplash

I can never read this section from the Acts of the Apostles without being a little shocked. Let's consider these two statements:

"After recalling the Apostles, they had them flogged."

then...

"So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,

rejoicing that they had been found worthy

to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name."

Let's be clear - flogging was not a small punishment. Even if they did not use metal-tipped flagrams, the knots alone would open serious wounds on the back, enough to lead to...rejoicing????

By undergoing every suffering on our behalf, Jesus elevates suffering itself. Now in the immediate case, it was the reason for their suffering that allowed their rejoicing. They were suffering for a reason. I think most of us can identify with that, and in our culture, soldiers, police officers and first responders put themselves in harrowing situations for the good of others, so this is not a foreign concept. Certainly Jesus' suffering also had a great purpose - Our Salvation!

I want to take this to another level though. Jesus elevates ALL suffering. The suffering of the faithful is always an opportunity for the Glory of God. Israel suffering in slavery was the occasion for God to save them with signs and wonders. The blindness, leprosy, bleeding, lameness and possession of thousands of first century people in and around Jerusalem and Galilee were the opportunity for the Glory of God through Jesus to be revealed, and to bring people to believe in Him. Without those, we might know and believe in Jesus ourselves. So even though that suffering seems to have no underlying purpose, God was able to give it purpose.

We can look at our periods of suffering in this way. We can pray for healing for sure, we can also pray that God might show His Glory in one way or another. This could be through a miraculous healing, or it could be in the way that we deal with our suffering with courage and grace or using our suffering to encourage or comfort someone else. Our suffering never need be wasted - if we are open to Jesus elevating it.

In the Gospel, the crowds were extremely hungry, having travelled days to find Jesus and then stay with Him for days listening to Him teach. They were suffering, and I'm sure they weren't necessarily

'offering it up' but Jesus turned their suffering, their hunger into an amazing miracle that would teach thousands about who Jesus was, what He came to do, and how He planned on being with us to the end of the age (the Eucharist). I'm sure they did not envision what would become of their hunger. Likewise, we never know what will become of our suffering, large or small.

My brother, who has gone through a number of very serious injuries shared this prayer with me. I don't know if they are his words or someone else's but that doesn't matter. He prays: "Lord I will go through anything because you went through everything for me, just don't let me go through it and not learn what you would have me learn." So as we encounter suffering in our lives - and we certainly will - we can connect with the suffering of Our Savior and even the suffering of His Apostles and open ourselves up to what God might want to turn them into.