I do not suffer well. There are those who would disagree and defend me even against myself, but they are wrong. I do not have a high pain tolerance, and my immediate instinct in an alarmingly high percentage of occurrences in my life is to complain. Sometimes I suppress it, most times I do not, at least internally. The one time in recent memory where I can honestly say that I think I suffered well and used pain and inconvenience to my advantage was when a kidney stone made its presence known to me about three minutes into a two-and-a-half-hour flight. Between all the sweating and vomiting that I had to suddenly fit into my schedule,
I found that I had no problem offering Divine Mercy chaplets and the unpleasant pain for various and sundry causes and prayer intentions. If any of you felt particularly sanctified at that moment, know we know that my prayers might have worked.

It’s just a theory, but I suspect that the reason why I found it possible to offer my suffering in that moment is because there were no other options. At one point the flight attendant asked if I thought I was going to make it, to which I chuckled and replied that I didn’t really see any other options, appealing as it was at times to think about pulling open the door and being ripped out into the void. I couldn’t change the pain, I wasn’t allowed to stop the paramedics from getting me off the plane, and ultimately, I couldn’t do much to move things along, as much as I might have wanted to. I had no choice but to suffer, and given that fact, it makes sense to make the best of it by uniting it to the Cross.

While I will no doubt forget that mindset again and again, we should remind ourselves that suffering in this life cannot be completely avoided. Sometimes it can be mitigated, and occasionally we might be able, by virtue and prudence, to sidestep unpleasant experiences, but it does not save us from the reality that
sooner or later, our number gets called and some truly awful stuff befalls us. Look no further than the example of Peter in today’s Gospel. Our Lord is right in the middle of proclaiming to His followers the path of suffering and pain that He must willingly take up in order to redeem them, and Peter denies that such a thing should, or even could, happen. It might be the case that Peter’s unwillingness to accept the method of Jesus’ redemption of mankind lays the foundation for him to deny Jesus when that suffering comes to pass. If we are not willing to accept the suffering that God takes upon Himself for our sake, perhaps it is even more difficult for us to accept the small ways that He asks us to share in this Cross with Him.
 
The world tells us that we don’t have to suffer, and that all suffering is bad. That is a lie, born of the father of lies. Jesus redeems our suffering because He walked that path for us and takes us by the hand when He asks us to bear the tiniest fraction of that trial with Him. The Gospel today asks us if we are like St. Peter when he scolds Jesus for embracing the Will of the Father, or like St. Peter when he denies Our Lord during His trial and persecution, or if we are working towards being like St. Peter who willingly took up his cross and followed Jesus’ path when
persecution came for him and his flock in Rome. We are all moving along this journey to incorporate suffering into God’s plan to sanctify us. Do not allow suffering to go to waste, because it is often the means that Jesus uses to form our hearts into the hearts of saints.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC