Peter’s exclamation of “You are the Christ, the son of the Living God!” is a bold declaration of who Christ is. Yet, a moment later, his lack of faith in that statement earns him rebuke from Our Lord. Although not included in the reading today, in the verse directly after Jesus tells his apostles He will suffer, Peter responds by saying, “God forbid Lord!”
Why Suffer?
Too many times our reaction to suffering is like Peter’s. We don’t like to suffer ourselves, and we don’t want others to suffer either, especially those closest to us. When we see good people suffering, it is particularly difficult to understand.
We may ask, like the prophet Haggai in the first reading:
“Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?”
We can think of the story of Job, who lost everything, yet remained close to God. In the end, he was blessed with more than what he had, and he was closer to God. However, the suffering he endured pushed him past his limits.
God tells us, just as He told the governor of Judah through the prophet Haggai:
“But now take courage…For I am with you…And my spirit continues in your midst;
do not fear!….Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former…And in this place I will give you peace.”
United in Suffering
It is part of human experience to suffer. I have not yet met a person who has never suffered. But the point is not the suffering: how bad it is, how long it lasts, how much it takes from us. The point is, what will you do with it? I am constantly amazed at the sufferings people share with me, along with the beauty that God has brought about through that suffering. The miracle of God being able to constantly bring good out of suffering constantly amazes me.
Jesus suffered, and what He did with the suffering He endured has brought about our redemption. Not only that, but it has allowed us to unite our suffering to His and participate a little bit in that redemption. Like the responsorial psalm today, our action in response to suffering is to hope in God and praise Him! In that way, we participate in His miracle of bringing out the good.
