‘Unless a wheat grain
falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain.
But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.’
A survey was carried out in
America a few years ago to see who were the happiest people and why.
The survey found that the happiest people were old African-American
women. The second happiest people were old Hispanic women.
The third happiest group of people were old women in general.
Why? Because they had suffered so much throughout their lives.
It had taught them so much and they had learned to be at peace and now
they were very content and very little would put them out. I
used to notice the same thing with many of the old people when I
worked in the hospital. The older people were usually much more patient
and tolerant that younger people, even though they would often be
suffering more, but they had generally learned to be tolerant and
patient. They weren’t easily phased.
We always wonder when we see people suffering, why
we have to suffer so much, especially at the end of someone’s
life. It is the one thing that all of us find hard to face and
we have no explanation for. However, the whole journey of Lent
tells us a lot about the place of suffering.
Suffering seems to be an unavoidable part of this life where
everything is so imperfect, but it does have its purpose. God
doesn’t want us to suffer, but God brings great good out of the
suffering by allowing us to be transformed by it. However, it
is a slow process and we don’t usually see the fruits of it until
afterwards, which makes it all the more difficult. If at the
time of suffering we knew that it would lead to something much
greater, it would make it a lot easier, but the problem is that we
usually cannot see any point to it at the time and that is part of
the suffering.
Unless a wheat grain
falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain.
But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.
The whole life of Jesus is also telling us something
about what we are called to. His life was one of total
self-giving. He lived for others. Yet in spite of all
that he did, he was continually persecuted. In the end he was
betrayed for money, falsely tried, tortured and executed and yet he
was totally innocent. All of this was sickeningly unjust, and
yet look at what God brought about from the death and resurrection of
Jesus: we are now offered eternal happiness with God when we die.
From the point of view of worldly thinking it makes absolutely no
sense, but seen with the eyes of faith we see something quite
different and that is why our faith is so important. It helps
us to make sense of what does not make any sense from a human point
of view.
You know how angry we all get when we are faced with
injustice. What happened with the economic crash a few years
ago is a good example. The greed of a few causing great
suffering for so many and as a result everyone is enraged and rightly
so. It is totally unjust and yet I have no doubt that we will
see great good come out of it as well.
It says in the second reading, ‘Although he was
Son, Christ learnt to obey through suffering.’ Jesus didn’t
want to suffer any more than we do, but he trusted that the Father
knew what he was doing, and so he accepted his will. He became
perfect through suffering. We don’t want to suffer either,
but we must also learn to trust that God knows what he is doing.
The society that we live in tells us continually
that we should be able to have everything exactly as we want it and
whenever we want it, and that we should never have to give in to
anyone. We are told that everything is for our pleasure; but
that’s not what Jesus taught us. He said, ‘Try to enter by
the narrow door’ (Lk 13.24). He also said, ‘Anyone who
loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world,
keeps it for the eternal life’. Jesus is telling us not to
invest everything in this life, because it is passing and what we
have here is not really important. The only thing that is
important is what will happen to us in the next life. We are
being faced with a long-term investment. If we try to find
total happiness here, we will be disappointed, because it is not to
be found. It is sad when you see people driven by greed, even
if they get away with it. They are trying to find happiness in
this life, through money, but no matter how much they are able to
acquire, they still won’t be happy. It cannot bring
happiness, because God has created us in such a way that we will
never be completely fulfilled by anything earthly, not even by
someone we love dearly. Hopefully we will have many times of great
joy, but we will never be completely fulfilled here.
The Lord is telling us not to be afraid of what we
have to go through in this life because it is transforming us and
helping us to become the best version of ourselves that we can be.
God is well aware of the potential we have and God wants us to reach
it. That is where we must trust him with the process of what He
allows happen to us.
Unless a wheat grain
falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain.
But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.
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