According to society today we are told to believe that we are the ultimate deciders between what is right and what is wrong. No matter what we believe, if it is right for us, then it is right and no matter what anyone else says we get to make that determination. There are also no consequences to whatever we deem to be right for us. 

This has led to a society where no one can agree with anyone and rather than listening to hear the other persons side we holler and categorize them as any number of different isms that are out there. This has also led to a society that does not seem to value life in the way we are accustomed to. There is a call for unlimited abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty and a lot of other things that lead to the death of a person. 

Suffering is not seen as something that can be used for good, but rather we need to eliminate the suffering regardless of the consequences. 

There was a young lady a few years ago who was diagnosed with cancer and rather than go through the chemo treatments and other various treatments that were recommended for her she would have a doctor assist in ending her life. She did not want to suffer if the treatments did not work. It was not a matter of whether those around her wanted her around, she had made up her mind that suffering was something she was not willing to endure. She had no faith to pin her hope on.

The readings we hear today tell a different story. In Isaiah we hear that he is ready to suffer all types of indignity in order to profess God’s word to the people of Israel. Going so far as to say “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”

He was willing to die for following what God instructed him to do. I will say that I have never heard God tell me to do anything, but I would hope that I would be willing to be like Isaiah and Christ and follow where he leads me. 

God has never promised a life without suffering, He has always promised that He would be there with us and support us during that suffering. This is the faith we are called to have. Our faith is where our hope comes from. Support each other not only in the good times, but in the times of suffering as well. James reminds us of what our faith is supposed to look like. Not one of simply professing to the world we know Christ and therefore we are saved. Then going out and acting in many ways in contradiction to what Christ taught. Mutilating our bodies to look like something God did not create us to be. Taking the lives of the most vulnerable, whether they be the unborn or the frail, take the lives of criminals who have admittedly been convicted of horrendous crimes.

We can look at the bible to find so many different instances where God has created something great from something we find offensive. David was an adulterer, and a murderer yet he led the kingdom of Israel to great heights because he listened to God and his advisors and repented of his sins. 

Jonah ignored God’s word and headed so far away from Nineveh that he ended up in a whale, only to be sent to Nineveh to cause the whole town to repent so they would be spared God’s wrath.

Matthew the tax collector was a cheat, and a thief, but ended up one of the Apostles. 

We see so many other instances in the bible of good coming from evil that we should pay attention to them. In all of this we are called to have faith. As James reminds us today though we need to show our faith not by our words alone when he says;

Indeed someone might say,

“You have faith and I have works.” 

Demonstrate your faith to me without works,

and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

When our faith is demonstrated to those around us even in times of suffering then our faith will grow and they will come to know that suffering is not the end. Christ reminds us today that we all have our own cross to bear, some of these crosses will carry with them great suffering. All we need to do is look at Christ and how he dies to know this. 

We all have trouble with this, even Peter, the rock whom Christ would build his church on could not understand this. He tries to tell Jesus that they will defend him when the time comes. Of course we all know what actually happened when that time came. They were still thinking as humans do and not as God does.

When we live our lives by the Beatitudes and perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy which we are called to do we find that our suffering is small in comparison to those around us. This means that even in the face of a society that does not seem to value life we need to show by our actions the faith we have in the sanctity of every human life.

I know as a parish we do our best to show this to those around us, we support those who choose life over abortion, we work with those in prison to show them another way, we let our governement representatives know that life is precious no matter the state it is in, the damage that the person did, or the suffering which we witness. 

Doing all of these things is hard and we will suffer at times because of these beliefs, but Christ reminds us today when we hear;

He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,

take up his cross, and follow me. 

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for my sake

and that of the gospel will save it.”

We should all do our best to live by these words. We should tell our egos to get out of the way and let God work through us, just as he did through Jonah, David, Peter, Matthew, and the rest of the apostles. When we do this we have the opportunity to show those around us how to listen to opposing views and come to an agreement that is in line with the truth. Christ did this right up until the end of his human life, even forgiving those who put him through all that suffering. This effort will require us to let the Holy Spirit into our community to guide us along this path. We will all be called to do different things as God uses us each for the charisms he has endowed us with. By picking up our cross and following Christ we get to show those around us by our actions where our faith and hope come from. We all need to take the first step and pick up our cross and follow Christ.