Homily
for April 1, 2007
Liturgical Year C - Cycle I
PALM SUNDAY
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Life is Hard
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We have begun Holy Week and there are lots of images that go with this
week. On Holy Thursday, there is the Last Supper and the Washing of the
Feet. On Good Friday, there is the Agony in the Garden, the Passion of
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, his suffering and death and the image of the
resurrection on Easter Sunday. I think the paramount image, for most of
us, for this week will be the Crucifix: Jesus on the Cross. It is
especially true for Catholics, because in every Catholic Church there
is a crucifix. It’s good that we take a minute or two as Holy Week
begins to talk about the Cross, His cross, and your crosses.
Many of you have read the book by Scott Peck, “The Road Less Traveled”.
It sold over 6 million copies. That book begins with a three-word
sentence: “Life is hard.” Then, for the rest of the book, Peck goes
about to explain how we accept the reality of that statement determines
whether we will lead a life of peace or a life of despair. The Passion
that we just heard reminds us that life entails suffering. As Scott
Peck would say that the manner in which we embrace that suffering or
reject it will determine if we are happy or miserable. So, we talk
about His cross and your crosses. It was interesting last night after
we had two masses at 4 pm and 6 pm. As I made these remarks, I looked
around. Priests know their people and I know your crosses. Frankly, I
was moved at the number of crosses you carry and at the great dignity
in which you carry your crosses. I made some notes last night and just
looking around as I spoke, I looked at a man who has cancer, a woman
whose husband is dying just as the kids are about to graduate from high
school (She knows she will lose him.), a man who recently lost his
beloved wife after over 50 years of marriage, a man who has Parkinson’s
Disease, a man who has been caring for his wife who has Alzheimer’s
(She’s not going to get better and he knows that. He’s thinking about
how he will care for her.), a woman who is a single mom and can’t make
ends meet, a man who had heart surgery and who has no job and no
insurance, a man who’s suffering from depression, a woman who has just
lost her husband and is left with three young children all under the
age of ten, a woman whose children are struggling with mental illness,
a woman whose son has just relapsed using drugs again, a man whose son
is in jail, a man who desperately wants faith, a couple whose son has
just been deployed to Iraq, a man who started drinking again, and a
woman whose mother-in-law just moved in with them. All of these people,
I’m sure, have said, “My God, My God! Why have you abandoned me?” I
also reflected on how easy it is to be a priest. We don’t get out of
this life without suffering either, but we do get a pass on a lot of
this stuff. You have many crosses and you bear them with great dignity
and grace because you know Him who gives you strength to carry those
crosses.
One thing’s for sure and that is suffering is inevitable. I guess
animals suffer. They certainly feel pain, but the human person suffers
much more greatly because we not only feel pain, we know we’re going to
feel it again tomorrow and the next day. Also, we suffer from spiritual
and relationship issues that are very painful and difficult. I think
maybe the answer that comes with this cross that comes with Christ, the
answer to coping with suffering, is found in one of the meanings of the
words, “to suffer”. It is an old meaning we don’t use very often, but
it’s interesting it is a meaning of the word. To suffer means to
permit, to allow, not to forbid or hinder, to tolerate, to bear, to
endure, to support, to sustain and to admit. The older ones of us
around can remember the old translation of the scripture where the
disciples were trying to keep the children away from Jesus. He said,
“Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Do you remember that? We
don’t use that word any longer in that context, but that’s one of the
meanings of suffer. “Let them come.” In other words, one of the
meanings of suffer is, “Let it come. I don’t want it, but let it come.
I’ll be obedient to it because I have no choice.”
Some people even embrace their suffering. Jesus did. There’s a
beautiful scene in the Passion of the Christ when he’s given the Cross
to carry. He accepts it and then he embraces it. He hugs it. He loves
the Cross because he loves you. The Cross was the instrument of your
salvation. He loved it and we should as well.
We also know that suffering that is well born changes us for the
better. Think about what suffering does to you. First of all, it strips
away our egotism. That is a big problem and has been since Adam and
Eve. Someone who is suffering’s ego is deflated completely. It also
removes any false sense of independence. It’s one of these American
virtues. “I’m a self-made man. I’m independent.” You look at your 401K
and all of your pensions and say, “Oh, I’m going to be comfortable
until I’m 300 years old. “ Well, that may be true until the doctor says
you have cancer and you won’t survive.
Suffering helps us to realize what is truly important. Everything that
gives us pain is passing and everything that gives us pleasure is
passing. What is important is that which is eternal. Suffering offers
us an opportunity to really know Christ, because unless you have
suffered with him, you really don’t know him. You haven’t spent that
quality time with him. Indeed, suffering has redemptive value and we
need to know that today. In Europe particularly, and especially some of
the countries in Northern Europe, countries have embraced euthanasia as
an answer to human suffering. “Well, he’s old and he’s sick, so let’s
put him down.” That’s what they’re doing. That makes sense if you see
suffering as being absurd and having no value. We know that it is not
absurd and that it has value, so we don’t put each other down. We
console and spend time with each other.
We have a great memory of suffering in the late Holy Father John Paul
II, John Paul the Great. Tomorrow is the second anniversary of his
death. There is a picture I hope you saw as you entered the church
today of him embracing his cross. If you didn’t see the picture, look
at it as you leave. He is actually embracing the cross. We saw him
embrace the cross of suffering publicly 10 years before he died. I
remember towards the end that his face was almost paralyzed. His eyes
watered. He drooled. He couldn’t smile and that must have killed him.
Yet funny enough, when babies looked at him, they smiled. They didn’t
see this hard look that the disease of Parkinson’s had given him. He
couldn’t walk. He could hardly speak. He couldn’t eat well. People were
saying, “Why doesn’t he retire? He’s hard to look at. Let’s get someone
in there younger.” John Paul the Great did his best work in the last
ten years of his life because he became an icon of suffering to a world
that denies the value of suffering. His biographer, George Wiegel, said
that, “His was not suffering born stoically. This was suffering
transformed from absurdity into witness and grace by being offered to
God in union with Christ.” John Paul knew that Easter was always
preceded by Good Friday. In the dignity with which he bore his
suffering, John Paul taught the 21st Century the same lessons that St.
Paul had tried to teach the people of Corinth in the 1st Century. As
Paul wrote, “As we share abundantly in Christ’s suffering, so through
Christ we share abundantly in comfort.” Wiegel reminds us of that great
verse from Colossians that somehow we make up in our own sufferings
what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Theologians are still
trying to unpack that. They’re not sure we can say that anything was
lacking in Christ for surely he was perfect, but it was Christ’s plan
that you join him on the Cross, that you share in his suffering for the
redemption of the world. Wiegel says that through John Paul II millions
around the world caught a glimpse of what it meant to fill up what is
lacking in the suffering of Christ for the good of the church and the
world. Now, we’re not masochists, especially Catholics. We’re really
the party animals of all Christians. We love feasts and fiestas and
parties and celebrations. We do not seek to suffer. We do all we can,
ethically, to lessen or eliminate suffering. With Jesus we say,
“Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me.” We also say,
“Not my will, but your will be done.”
Life is hard. Jesus knew that. John Paul the Great knew it. We know it.
Life is hard and how we face that reality determines whether we will
live a life of happiness and peace or a life of despair and
hopelessness. We also know that Easter follows Good Friday. That gives
us hope, it gives us peace, and it gives us true happiness.