Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

Rabbi Kushner wrote a book entitled, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”.  Notice in the title, he did not say “if” but when as a definitive statement that bad things will happen to good people.  What inspired Rabbi Kushner to write the book were his struggles with accepting the death of his son, who died of a disease that causes the body to age rapidly and his son died as an elderly person at the age of 12 years.  His son’s death shook his belief system in God and challenged his faith.  At the beginning of his journey, his son’s death made no sense to him and caused him to become depressed and lose faith in God.  Afterall, he was called by God to minister to His people and his perception was that God had abandoned him.  At the end of his journey his faith was fully restored and he realized that suffering is part of the human existence and death is the gateway to eternal life.

Sin entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve.  St. Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death.  Due to original sin, we are all sinners, and our sin is at the root of all pain and all suffering.

We can look upon suffering in one of two ways.  We can avoid taking responsibility for our own sinfulness and blame God for the bad things that happen to us and the people around us. The alternative is to use the suffering as a means to increase our faith in the mercy of God and His benevolence to all humankind by giving us eternal life through His son.

After my sister’s death to leukemia, I unconsciously struggled with God trying to make sense of her death.  She was only 37 and had a full life ahead of her.  The struggle ended six years after her death when I was on retreat.  I entered the chapel alone and before the blessed sacrament I laid by life bare and my struggles before God.  It was the first time I felt the anger consciously and the first time I admitted it.  In the moment, I was given the grace to remember and understand how God had healed my sister, not of leukemia, but her spirit was healed, and God had welcomed her into His kingdom eternally.

I learned to accept the bad things in life with a growing trust that nothing can ever separate from the love of God, except my own decision to be separated.  And I learned through the pain, that the love of God was sufficient in all things and that God always heals but not always in the way we except.

Bad things happened to Jesus on Good Friday, but it was necessary for the resurrection.  We too die to sin in our suffering in the hope of the resurrection when we will be reborn into a glorious and eternal life.

We are asked to suffer patiently and offer our suffering for the reparation of sins in the world.  Our suffering has meaning when it is joined to the suffering of Christ on Good Friday and becomes a form of mediation for the salvation of all people.  Yes, bad things do happen to good people and glorious things also happen to those who trust in Him.

May God continue to bless you:

Deacon Phil