Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
I was recently with a family holding their newborn son. They invited me to pray with them in thanksgiving for their child. When I asked is there anything they specifically want to pray about? The mother responded, “I would like to thank God for sending us a child when we thought we could not have one. I would also like to God that the baby is healthy.” Then to my surprise, she said, “One other thing, that God allowed me to use even the pain of childbirth to praise God.” We prayed as a family in the back of Church, but I could not stop thinking about her pain connected to praise.
Even now creation is groaning, as are those who consider themselves disciples of the risen king. Notice that the scriptures do not suggest that it is groaning for groaning's sake. Instead we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. All of us go through suffering, and for some of us, we are stuck in a cycle where we allow our suffering to define us. St. Paul suggests to the disciples both then and now that suffering is not without hope. Paul tells us that “if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.” St. John Paul II made the connection that suffering with endurance, with grace is what we can call redemptive suffering.
As a hospital chaplain, I see suffering and many tears. Tears of genuine sadness. Tears born out of fear of the unknown. Sometimes the tears come from relief and sometimes they are borne out of joy. The psalmist reminds us that those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. Suffering is not the end of the story. The resurrection only makes sense after the crucifixion. My prayer is that when we combine our suffering with the yeast of faith we find hope and redemption.
- Deacon Michael Montgomery