Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
During the Easter season, the most joyous season of the Church year, there are still funerals. Though the church is decorated with flowers, and other reminders of Easter joy, we know of those who are suffering. Many in the pews are in the midst of facing the loss of a job, or struggling through the pain of a shattered friendship, or even journeying with a loved one who is near death. Sometimes the joy of the resurrection is more difficult to encounter when times get tough.
Certainly, death was on the minds of those in early church as they were burying their brother Stephen. The lament of Stephen’s friends expressed deep sorrow over losing a powerful witness of the Lord. To make matter’s worse, Stephen’s executioner was going house to house in an attempt to destroy the church. It is a scene that might make us think of current war zones, where soldiers go house to house to clear neighborhoods of insurgents. Saul’s people did not carry guns, yet they were tenacious in trying to eliminate these radical believers.
Just as those who were saddened by Stephen’s death may no longer have felt the joy of the resurrection, we too struggle. These tough times are when the Lord is trying even harder to remind us of his desire to feed us and lead us from death to new life. As strong as the will of those who would destroy, the promise of Easter and new life only bolstered these radical believers, though persecuted their resolve was strengthened. Demons were expelled; the paralyzed and crippled were made whole. Most importantly they experienced “great joy.” Yet how could joy have been the consequence of suffering?
Joy and suffering would seem to mix like oil and water. Yet, Easter teaches us otherwise. Death leads to resurrection. The gospel reminds us of the source of the connection between these two apparent opposites. Of course, the connector is Jesus. We, as a resurrection people, have as a constant reminder the joy and suffering in our encounter of Christ in the paschal feast.
John’s gospel reminds us that Jesus is more than manna. Jesus is the bread of life. The bread which becomes Body and the wine that becomes blood, make present the living sacrifice of cross. This bread of life is not just food for the journey; it is nourishment for the soul. This is why we call Eucharist the source and summit of our faith. It is in becoming what we receive, that we enter more deeply into the new and eternal covenant.
As the challenges of persecution present themselves today, stop and say a prayer that gives the suffering over to the God who was able to change the sea into dry land. Allow the bread of life to transform your sorrow to great joy. So it was for the early Christians; so it can be for us both now and forever. Amen! Alleluia!
-Michael Montgomery