For Us Christ Is Life

“When the way is hard to find,                                                                                                                                                                     Seeking first the Father’s will,                                                                                                                                                                         All your purposes fulfill-                                                                                                                                                                      Lead your wandering people still.”

It has been three weeks since Hurricane Michael blew through the Panhandle of Florida, just missing us on Mobile Bay. Hurricane shutters are back in storage, mildew is washed away from painted outdoor surfaces, holes in the ground remain from the storm surge, but are no longer expanding. We were fortunate, blessed even, but some fear remains. Like the holes in our yard, our hearts are broken, constant reminders of the danger nearby.

Last Sunday we heard a sermon we wish we had heard before Hurricane Michael. Maybe we had heard it before, but had not connected with it.

It is the time James and John, Apostles of Jesus, wanted the honor of sitting beside Jesus in His Heavenly Kingdom. Jesus tells them they will not be spectators, but true participants of His Journey to Jerusalem. There they too will drink the cup that Jesus would drink. It is the cup of of suffering, of dying a painful death, being degraded by all. No longer spectators, but true participants, they will be.

They had an opportunity to unite their suffering with Jesus’ suffering, both mental and physical. Being afraid, enduring hours of agony, not looking forward to the final end until both Jesus and James and John recognized the will of the Father and could say: “Not my will, but Your will.”

This is what was missing from us on Mobile Bay. We were so busy asking for something for ourselves that we failed to recognize that the will of the Father could use this suffering, to save us from our sins and life away from the Father. Hurricane Michael is just another preview of other suffering to come.

Fear may be the springboard to courage. Thus we have another opportunity to unite with Christ’s suffering in Gethsemane and Calvary; a second chance to open wide our minds and hearts; another chance to grasp the life Jesus is offering us.

How?

Each Mass we attend, the priest raises high bread, which is the life of Christ, and then the chalice, filled with wine, changed into His blood. Now is the time to unite our suffering and those of our friends to His suffering. Our response shows our trust in God, who knows what we need; showing our faith, following the path He has set out for us, to sit with Him, to rest with Him.