We should be willing to suffer

IF we really want to be Christ-like as we ought to be, then

we should be willing to suffer for God and for everybody else. This is

what Christ did. He was willing to obey the will of his Father that

involved the offering of his life for the sins of men.

  

          Imagine what Christ had to go through to save us! Being the

Son of God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, he became man,

he preached what is right and wrong, true and false in our beliefs and

practices, performed miracles. But since we still cannot correspond

properly or stably to all this goodness of God, he had to offer his

life to forgive our sins.

   

          We have to learn to follow this example of Christ who, as he

himself said, is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. He went all

the way to recover the lost ones, unafraid of all the sacrifices

involved, living out the lessons he taught in those parables of the

lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son.

  

          I wonder if we have this attitude of Christ. Unfortunately,

what is more commonly observed is that many of us tend to be

self-righteous, quick to find fault and to judge others. Many of us

cannot stand being contradicted, insulted, mocked, offended. In other

words, we are not willing to suffer the way Christ suffered for the

mistakes and sins of men.

  

          Many of us cannot even stand a view or position that is

different or contrary to ours. It would seem that many of us are

claiming that we have all the correct things, that what we have and

hold cannot be improved, enriched or even modified and, much less,

corrected. This is really the height of self-righteousness when

intolerance, inflexibility and rigidity are the rule of the day.

  

          This is not what Christ has taught us and has shown us with

his life and teaching. Christ bore all the sins of men, assuming them

as if they were his own and dying to them with his own death, but

conquering them with his resurrection.

   

          Though he was harsh with the leading Jews of that time, the

scribes and the Pharisees who were supposed to know better, he in the

end offered forgiveness to everyone, including those who crucified

him, because as he said, “they do not know what they are doing.”

  

          He was in fact very harsh with St. Peter himself who tried

to stop him from going to Jerusalem to consummate his redemptive

mission on earth. “Get behind me, Satan,” he told Peter in no unclear

terms. “You are a stumbling block to me. For you do not have in mind

the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mt 16,23)

  

          We just have to learn how to be patient and tolerant,

open-minded, slow to judge, with a good grip on our emotions and

passions, and ready to understand, to disregard irritating details and

to forgive and ask forgiveness, as well adept in the art of congenial

dialogue, avoiding being abrupt and abrasive. We have to learn to bear

the burdens of the others, no matter how undeserving we feel they are.

  

          Obviously, what should drive all these qualities is our

growing and deepening love for God whose love for us precisely goes

all the way in spite of our lack of correspondence and even our open

hostility to him.

   

          Absent this love, we cannot really go far in our effort to

understand one another and achieve a measure of unity and harmony

among ourselves. Sooner or later, we will end up squabbling that can

degenerate into bitter conflicts and almost irreconcilable divisions

among ourselves.

  

          If we really have to reach out to those who are lost, we

should be willing to suffer for them and with them, and not just

insist on what is right and wrong. This way, we follow Christ.