Readings for Sunday, October 10th

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

If you haven’t read or heard today’s Mass readings for this 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, please read them first and then return here for my thoughts.

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My father sometimes spoke of 1954 into 1955 as the most challenging year of his life.  We lived in California! His father, with whom he was very close, had a major heart attack here in Massachusetts. With a young family of his own, little money and no time off from work, Dad couldn’t fly 3,000 miles to be with him. People seldom traveled those distances back then.

My mother was pregnant for the fifth time in five years.

I was sick with serious kidney disease and confined to bed for half a year.

Suddenly, we had to move to New York, and it wasn’t easy finding a suitable house, so we rented something tiny for a few months and every Sunday afternoon my parents went in search of a house in 3 states. Not great fun for young kids.

So, it was “the perfect storm.” But not unlike the “storms” many of you have experienced. There are moments in life when “our world” seems to collapse.

What I remember most vividly was my mother nursing me. We all remember our mothers caring for us, especially during sickness. We remember Mom at our bedside, sacrificing her own sleep, and suffering as she saw her child suffer. But there for us!  Our mothers didn’t bring on our illnesses. But they patiently endured them. They took our burden on themselves. And their sacrifices launched beautiful lessons of self-forgetting love. My parents’ care for us never wavered. And yours didn’t.

Things brightened for us. My grandfather recovered and went on to live a healthy 23 years, though he had to give up cigars. I was cured and went to first grade. My sister, Kathleen, was born. And we found that larger house we needed in a great neighborhood. The “perfect storm” was over.

I share these personal memories to trigger your own similar memories but also to get at the heart of two readings today: Isaiah and Mark.

Their meaning is this: someone takes on the burden of another, willingly, patiently, and sacrificially, someone takes on another person’s suffering, and that other person experiences relief, redemption, or “being saved” in some fashion. This is the heart of our faith.

For Isaiah, that Someone is the suffering servant, the Messiah, who will come centuries later. “Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many. Their guilt he shall bear.” Isaiah is really talking about God’s servant taking on the sickness of our sin.  For Mark that Someone is Jesus who, by his time, had already come. And the instrument of our being saved was the cross, unjust as it was. In our faith, we say Jesus died for us. By his cross and resurrection, he saved us.  Jesus’ suffering was incredibly good for all of us. Eternal life came from so horrible an execution.

James and John are featured in the Gospel. At first, they got all his teachings wrong. Jesus wants them to serve others, take on the burdens of others, relieve others from suffering, be redemptive love. What do they want? They want seats in “the owner’s box” when Jesus comes into his glory.

How do we handle suffering, particularly unjust suffering? For that’s what Jesus experienced. What do we do in those times when we experience pain and didn’t bring it on ourselves? Isn’t that what we should be thinking about today?

Were you ever blamed for something you didn’t do?  Did you feel your parent unjustly favored your brother or sister over you? Or a teacher favor other kids? Were you the best performing worker at the office and lose your job to someone who did very little? The list of possibilities is long.

Isaiah and Mark ask us to believe that even unjust suffering can be life-giving, depending on how we respond. Unjust suffering, patiently and lovingly shouldered, can unleash redemptive power.

Half a century ago, the Protestant minister, Martin Luther King, through non-violence, essentially began what came to be the American civil rights movement. His peaceful protests, which many remember, and which were inspired by the teachings of Jesus, were met with snarling dogs, water cannons, beatings and sometimes death. King’s suffering, and that of many others, was totally unjustified. But his peaceful response to that suffering unleashed tremendous redemptive power that led to good for millions of others. And the country changed in many ways. It was like Jesus on the cross, returning good for the evil being done to him.

In 1981, Pope Saint John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square, struck by 4 bullets, the act of a paid assassin.  The attack left him very close to death. After recovering, he went to the prison cell of the gunman to forgive him and that visit unleashed redemptive love not only for his assailant but for millions across the world.

“My servant shall suffer and their guilt he shall bear.”  Isaiah speaks of the still far-off Christ whose love would overflow from the cross for the good of others. Jesus takes the guilt of the people on himself and transforms the life of the world. He pays the ransom. We are cleansed! That why He is “the one who takes away the sins of the world,” as we say at every Mass. His love saves us.

And we’re asked to do the same. Love in the midst of crosses! So, have you suffered? Better, have you suffered unjustly? And what do you do with it?