Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary TimeWhere do you find God? A lot of people will talk about finding God in nature. Maybe you find God in the lyrics of a song that, as the young people say, hits you right in the feels (that means it gave you an emotional response). Hopefully, you find God in reading Scripture, and in the Mass and the Sacraments. But there’s another unlikely place where we can find God.
Maybe it’s strange to say, but can we find God in suffering? Can we find God in pain and sorrow? Can we find God in the down times of life? Because on earth there is no place we can go where God is not. And that includes even in the darkest times in life.
Habakkuk the prophet is speaking for God not long before the Babylonian Exile in 587 BC. Things are not going well for Judah. Ever since King Solomon, most of the kings had been pretty bad, with a few shining exceptions. Judah is on a downward trajectory away from the Lord. And Habakkuk is crying for help, but God does not seem to be listening. But God tells Habakkuk to be patient, and speak what God tells him, “For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.” God promises something better for Habakkuk in the future, but He also reminds Habakkuk (in the sections we didn’t hear today) that He is in the midst of whatever happens, even if it seems dark and dismal.
St. Paul in our second reading corresponds with St. Timothy for a second time, and reminds St. Timothy to hold fast to the gift of God that St. Timothy received in ordination when St. Paul laid hands St. Timothy. St. Paul alludes to the fact that he is a prisoner. He had been arrested and taken to Rome after the Jews tried to condemn St. Paul on trumped-up charges. But because St. Paul was a Roman citizen, he could appeal to the emperor. While the judgement was being decided (and we know that St. Paul was eventually beheaded by the Emperor Nero, so it didn’t turn out well). But in the midst of that, and even the trial that Paul’s situation must have been for Timothy, St. Paul says not to give up, but “bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.”
I think we often like to pretend that following God means an easy life. We may tell ourselves that if we’re living like saints, then trouble won’t find us. But that’s not the case. Many people who have followed God have suffered. Think of the myriad army of martyrs who suffered simply because they followed Jesus, starting with St. Stephen, all the way to the martyrs of the 20th and now 21st centuries. Think of Mary, who never sinned at all. And yet, in September we remember Our Lady of Sorrows and the seven sorrows of Mary, culminating in watching her Son and God die on the cross.
But Jesus dying on the cross is exactly the good news that the world needs. It doesn’t sound like good news, but when we go beyond the surface, we realize what a great thing the crucifixion is. In Christianity, we profess God who entered into everything that is truly human. And that includes suffering. God loves us so much, that He even experience in Jesus the sorrow, pain, and darkness of human suffering. He was abandoned, misunderstood, and experienced the death of his friends. He was betrayed, unjustly incarcerated, and unjustly put to death in the most shameful way possible. Jesus went to the darkest part of human existence, and redeemed it. He didn’t take it away on earth, but met us there so that we would not be alone when we suffer.
That is truly news that does not disappoint, the vision that presses on to fulfillment. No matter what pain and sorrow we are going through–from a hang nail, to a broken heart from a break-up, to a hospitalization, and even to the loss of a friend or family member through death–Jesus is there, and He does not leave us alone.
In the midst of our sorrows and pain, we need to stir into flame the gift of faith that we received in baptism, that gift of trust in Jesus that He will never abandon us. Life may not be a rose garden, but if we unite it to Jesus, then there’s no better place to be than with him.
