On Life's Struggles

Reflection on Jer 38:4-6, 8-10; Ps 40:2-4, 18; Heb 12:1-4; Lk 12:49-53

Struggle- whatever form it takes- is a fact of life. As people of God, we often wonder why the Lord would allow His children to experience pain, hardship and suffering. Our scripture readings provide an answer: to draw out something good from them.

In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a muddy cistern to die there, only to be rescued by the Lord through an Ethiopian courtier. Jeremiah thus continued his teaching on the great oracle of the new covenant, the “gospel before the gospel”. In the psalm, David lamented that his enemies had cast him into the pit of destruction but thanked God for “setting his feet upon rock and steadying his steps.” David emerged from this struggle sovereign and his “royal throne firm forever” (2 Sm 7:15). In the letter to the Hebrews, the sacred writer exhorts us to “persevere in running the race” with “our eyes fixed on Jesus”, who would lead us and perfect us. In the gospel, Jesus expressed His yearning for the baptism with which He must be baptized. By baptism, Jesus meant His cross of suffering, from which came the greatest good of all: His victory over sin and death, our redemption.

While Christ’s victory does not remove our struggles or suffering, it has redeemed it. When the Lord embraced the cross of Calvary, He struck a devastating blow on evil, which is at the root of much suffering. When Jesus rose from the dead, He won for us an endless life free from sin and suffering. Thus, when we join our temporal suffering with the redemptive suffering of Christ, the Lord brings out from it a lasting good. Paul wrote of this shared suffering in Christ and the good it produced in Gal 2:19-20 “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” In 2 Cor 1:5, the Apostle attests, “For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.” The supreme good derived from sharing in the redemptive suffering of Christ caused Paul to proclaim in Col 1:24, “I rejoice in my sufferings.”

If struggle or suffering is inevitable in this life, we have a choice of dealing with it: with Jesus or without Jesus. As God’s children, our choice is clear: “and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” Rm 8:17-18.

For us who “struggle against sin”, what must we do to suffer with Jesus? The Word from Hebrews offers the following guidance.

First, we are to “rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us.” This means we should repent for our sins, forgive and reconcile with others. We must not let sin and our worldly attachments cling to us so that we may be able to cling to Jesus.

Second, we must “persevere in running the race that lies before us.” No matter what hardships confront us, we should persevere “for the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world” 1Jn 4:4. When we persevere, the Lord fortifies us to bear difficulties or even harm. Thus hope is unleashed in us, assuring us that suffering will not defeat us nor deny us our dignity as human persons. “By your perseverance you will secure your lives” Lk 21:19.

Finally, we must keep “our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” When our hearts are set on the Lord, we receive the grace of a intimacy with Jesus that allows us “to know him and the power of his resurrection and (the) sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death” Phil 3:10-11.