We Share In Christ's Pain On The Cross

Twenty-second Sunday in Course 2025

Humility, yes. I suspect that many preachers in this country have been humbled by the recent events at a Catholic church and school in Minneapolis last week. Typically we work hard on a homily for some days and often feel proud of our work when we come to the Sunday celebration. But when someone is murdered, it catches all of us up short, and when the violence is carried out on children, especially as they are praying at Mass on the second day of school, no words can ever suffice to bring us back to anything like normalcy.

So the words of Jesus ben Sira from the century before Christ, enjoining humility in our work are particularly important for us clergy. His injunction about having an attentive ear is critical for all of us. We gather here with confused minds and willing ears to pay close attention to God’s word. Not like the people of Israel under Moses, who heard from Sinai nothing but scary words and trumpet blasts. No. We approach the heavenly Mount Zion, the city of the living God and we do so surrounded by countless angels with the Father and the Son, Jesus, mediator of the New Covenant we commemorate at every Mass, and we look forward to sharing His Body and precious Blood that makes us one with Him and each other. We do so humbly, knowing that only God’s call and God’s grace enable anything we do or say.

We are the needy poor, no matter what our bank account shows, spoken of by the psalmist today. O God, we look to you more in times of disaster than any other time, but we are poor and needy of what is truly valuable at all times—Your redeeming and sanctifying grace.

Today’s readings go along with what St. Paul wrote to the church at Colossae nearly two thousand years ago: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” These words are like a hammer blow to anyone who is complacent about Christ and His plan for humanity. They imply—no, they do more than imply—that Paul and the rest of those baptized into Christ have a share in His redemptive work. That’s true even though just the shedding of one drop of Christ’s blood would have been enough to redeem all of us. “There is nothing that anyone can add to the infinite value of the cross.”

Here's the full truth, and it may help us understand how we can stand in our grief not only with the people of Minneapolis, and those who suffered recently from floods in Texas, and the Christians in Gaza and Ukraine, but also with all who suffer wherever and whenever it happens. “[Paul’s sufferings and ours] are the vehicle for conveying the Passion to the hearts and souls of men, and in this way they bring completeness to the Passion in an external way.” Paul writes that again and again to his churches.

St. Augustine, writing in the midst of the barbarian assaults on Christendom during the late fourth century, regarded Christ’s afflictions today as the suffering of His Mystical Body, all those spiritually united in His Church. The sufferings of Christ were not only in the Head, in the first century, but in His members, in all centuries.

Apply this to our current grief and pain. Imagine yourself on Calvary, as Jesus endures His death struggle. What gave Him the most pain? Donald Haggerty, one of my favorite writers, suggests that since the divine Christ knew all those whom His passion would redeem, He also knew and knows all those who would refuse His salvation. Feel His pain a little bit. It would be like a man or woman reaching out and grabbing the arm of a drowning relative yet feeling that dying person struggle against his grasp. Those who persist in sin and don’t take Christ’s forgiveness are like that. How pitiable to prefer death in sin over living forgiven and made holy. That refusal gives Christ the most pain, I believe.

So you might ask the Lord for the grace to share the pain of the parents and teachers and friends of those killed or hurt in the disaster. Tell Christ that you want to help bring grace to a graceless situation. And give Him praise, for we all, both in good times and tragedy, must live our lives for the praise of God’s glory.