The message we receive in our Scripture readings today is that before Jesus could rise to glory on Easter, He first had to suffer and die. Peter puts it this way in our first reading today: “God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through… all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer [before being raised to glory].”
Jesus refers to this in our Gospel reading today. He adds elsewhere in the Gospel that what has happened to Him must also happen to us when He says, “Remember, no slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”
The Gospel says that if we are to rise to glory as Jesus did, we must also suffer as He did. When this happens, we may beg God to take it away as Jesus begged His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, but in the end, we will cry for joy just as Jesus did.
St. Augustine expressed this same message in a sermon over 1,500 years ago. He said, “You are like a piece of pottery, shaped by instruction, fired by tribulation. When you are put in the oven, therefore, keep your thoughts on the time when you will be taken out again; for God is faithful and will guard both your going in and your coming out.”
Back in 1954, the great French painter Henri Matisse died at 86. In the last years of his life, arthritis crippled and deformed his hands, making it painful for him to hold a paintbrush. Yet, he continued to paint, placing a cloth between his fingers and the brush to keep the brush from slipping.
One day, someone asked Matisse why he submitted his body to such suffering. Why did he continue to paint in the face of such great physical pain? Matisse replied, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”
Similarly, the pain you and I experience being shaped into something useful and beautiful for God will pass. But the beauty of what we become in the process will remain forever.
Homily for the Memorial of St. Leo the Great
Homily for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Homily for Wednesday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Tuesday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Monday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily for the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo
Homily for Friday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day)
Homily for the Solemnity of All Saints
Homily for Tuesday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Monday of the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Homily for the Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
Homily for Friday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Wednesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Tuesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for Monday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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