CONVERTING SUFFERING INTO OFFERING

HOMILY FOR THE 5^TH SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR B

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

We do not see suffering in the sacrifices we make or in the experiences we pass through as Christians. What we do see is service and offering. When we suffer, we see in those sufferings an offering for the sake of who we believe in (God) and for the sake of others. The awful experiences we encounter, the moments that make us to cry, the people that make us to grief, the things that cause us to sob, and the words that break our hearts are all geared towards one purpose –to toughen and position us on the right plane. Nothing escapes the gaze of God. Consider that joyful position you find yourself today, and think back on the past horrible ones; crosscheck then whether you will be in the present joy if you had not passed through the past sorrow. Sufferings are meant to be accepted and offered up as offerings to God. No one sees the future. And so, why must you seem to give up if you expect to do Law in the University, and you see your score amongst those doing Public Administration? What you should be concerned with is praying to God to accept that suffering of yours as a fitting offering for your salvation.

The First Reading (Job 7:1-4. 6-7) presents to us the grief of a suffering man, Job. Job lamented over his condition. It affected him so much because he was not used to such a condition. He may have forgotten that some people were actually born in that suffering condition he has found himself for some little time. If he had remembered this and weighed the duration such persons had put into suffering and his own duration, it may have led him into appreciating his former condition and making sure he lifts others out of such condition if he sees himself out soonest. This is what it means to convert suffering into offering. If you see yourself in a position that makes you weep, learn to think about some persons who have occupied such position ahead of you, and may remain there after you. Learn to be appreciative, and practice some form of offering for those persons.

Job experienced sleeplessness, emptiness, misery and hopelessness. These experiences made him to understand the shortness of life and its vanity, coupled with its ugliness. Some people tend to see every good in life without knowing that some others are crying and lamenting over series of bad experiences. Some tend to cry over the inability to build houses, while some others are dying of malnutrition. Some are weeping that they owe school fees, while some others are just praying to survive a particular terminal illness. Learn to be grateful, and convert those suffering moments into offering for those you are better off than. Sufferings must teach us. Job’s suffering later on led him into the omnipotence of God and the fragility of humanity. Suffering must humble us, and should never make us more proud. We have to accept our position as human beings who are created and whose knowledge cannot be limitless.

St. Paul in the Second Reading (1 Cor. 9:16-19,22-23) understood well how to be humble in suffering and how to offer suffering up for the sake of Christ and his Church. In his writing, he exposes that he has suffered for the Gospel through his preaching in many places. This however does not make him boast, since he is a preacher of Christ. He has rather seen himself as a slave to all. He makes himself weak to save the weak. He does not believe that the demonstration of his strength is a way of saving the weak. That would be intimidation, and such a gospel of intimidation does not last and cannot be in the real sense an offering for others. Paul offered himself up for the sake of the gospel, and saw in his sufferings, a channel to save others. He denied himself of a luxurious life for the sake of working to see that more people encounter the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ actions in the Gospel (Mark 1:29-39) becomes an eye opener of one who is skilled in the act of seeing offering in suffering. He lives his life for the sake of others. He considers others first, even when such consideration leads him into denying himself of certain rights and privileges. Jesus went straight to the home of Peter’s mother-in-law after the worship session in the synagogue. According to the tradition of the Jews, the major meal of the Sabbath came immediately after the synagogue service, at the sixth hour (12:00 mid-day). As many people were going home to rest and most probably to take their Sabbath meal, Jesus was concerned with going to a home to continue the work He was sent to do. As many were thinking about themselves and their wellbeing, Jesus was thinking about another and her wellbeing. Jesus has the right to rest after the exhausting synagogue service, but he did not.

Another concerns the person who was healed. Peter’s mother-in-law was ill and immediately she was healed, she started to attend to her visitors. She did not relax as a newly recovered person; rather she used her recovered health for a renewed service. We are saved to serve. Paul was saved to serve. Christians are saved to serve. Do not see yourself as a king or queen to be served; rather see yourself as a servant whose service will help to bring salvation. Do not be selfish in your life of service. That service might be your moment of suffering. Yes, service involves suffering. However, service is service only if it offers. And never believe that the service you are rendering makes no meaning. Do not belittle those moments of service, for they are the most precious moments of your life. Even when it is forcefully appealing to you that such suffering is not any form of service, do not dance to such an appeal; rather convert such an appeal into a persuasive encouragement that humanity is being saved by you.

Do not see hopelessness where actually you should be very hopeful. Do not see failure where actually is your way to success. Do not see punishment where actually you are corrected for the better. Do not weep or grief over suffering; instead reap the suffering and plant anew the seed of offering. Learn to convert your suffering to an offering for the sake of others. If you have found yourself in prison when you have done nothing illegal, convert those hard punishments into an offering for the suffering Church in purgatory. If you are undergoing some setbacks based on the wickedness of mankind, convert those setbacks to step racks for another direction, and offer it up for all those who may suffer such in the future. If you are maimed and destroyed for a course you do not know about, convert them into a warning against future misdeed and offer it up for the sake of others who have no one to adjudicate for them.   

One last thing is that we ought to accompany our offerings with silent moments of prayer. The Gospels are replete with the action of Christ who always has time for prayer. After healing many persons today, he withdrew to pray. The prayer of Jesus is a sure proof that he never disconnected himself from heaven. Hence, the Christian must even as he/she offers up his/her suffering to God back them up with prayer. It does not end in offering; it continues in constant prayer. May we be more encouraged and energized in our struggle, and may our offerings be acceptable to God when we offer them up to him in prayer. Amen. I wish you a happy new week. God bless you.