Pastor's Ponderings | July 31, 2022
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August 1, 2022This heat has sure gotten to me. I find I am more tired than normal and that my fuse is much shorter than normal. I know people get annoyed with me when I say pray for snow but in my mind, we can dress for cold but no matter how much we take off we will still be hot. Unfortunately, the hottest spot I find myself having to be is none other than Holy Family Church. In my moments of heat induced fogginess I imagine us all as pizzas baking in a brick oven. But as we know this too shall pass and we will, soon I hope, return to our more normal temps.
In the sacristy during these warm days, the jokes about how pastors in the past have given short homilies about how if we think it is hot in the church than we should be careful not to end up in hell were all the rage. In church terms these memories are the equivalent to “dad jokes.” They cause us to chuckle but inside we are groaning.
To me, what is more concerning is the number of people who will use heat as an excuse for not coming to Mass. Sure there are people with health concerns that should avoid being in extreme heat but many who are not at Mass on hot Sundays find themselves in other places where it is just as hot. It is just as hot at the lake, or up to camp. It is just as hot at home even with the air conditioning blasting. There is just no escaping the heat.
I think we are all aware of this so there must be another reason why when it gets hot, or when it gets cold for that matter, so many will use this as an excuse to miss Mass. In my humble opinion, we just do not like to be uncomfortable. We do not like to suffer even a little bit. This is a no brainer. If anyone were to tell me that they enjoy suffering I would immediately try to find professional help for this person. But the fact of the matter is that, to various degrees, we will all have to suffer throughout life. A heat wave, a cold snap, a pandemic, illness, or tragedy are but a few of the triggers that will cause us suffering.
Over the years we have been convinced that suffering is something that should be avoided at all costs. Medications that mask our pain with a subtle high have resulted in a drug problem that has led to even more suffering. Efforts to ignore pain or suffering have led to the proliferation of anxiety and depression. Finally, to encourage “death with dignity” assisted suicide has been posited as a right. But in every instance this practice ends life without having any effect on suffering that is part of life.
As Christians, we somehow get in our heads that following Jesus is going to make our lives easier. It’s as if we think that following Jesus means we get to live heaven on earth. The truth, however, is a whole lot different. Jesus himself tells us that following him is going to involve crosses and tests. Jesus tells us that his followers should expect the same type of suffering that He has experienced. The suffering of being an outcast, the suffering of being misunderstood, of being thought a troublemaker, of being on the wrong side of history are some of the crosses that Christians will carry. Add to these the burdens that we would never choose for ourselves, illness, poverty, homelessness, hopelessness, heat, or cold and it would seem that there is really no benefit to being a follower of Jesus.
But we constantly need to remember that we are Easter People. We are not Good Friday people. Our suffering is not anymore an end for us, than was the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Of course, suffering is hard. Of course, being uncomfortable is taxing and annoying. As Easter people, however, we know that just as the cross and the tomb could not imprison Jesus, neither will our pain or our suffering bind us. Instead, we may suffer for a time, we may hurt for a while, we may be uncomfortable for an hour, a day, a week, a lifetime, but these crosses, these tombs will not imprison us. Instead, we follow Jesus to glory, we follow Jesus to fullness of life, we follow Jesus to paradise.
Suffering is not easy. It wasn’t easy for Jesus, and it will never be easy for us. But it is a part of life that we can either embrace with joy or avoid at all costs. Embracing suffering causes all kinds of fear but knowing that we are not alone, knowing that our suffering is united to the suffering of Jesus, knowing that the Holy Spirit is with us in every moment of our pain, means we can once again heed the words of Jesus and be not afraid.
Perhaps it would be easier if I had simply said, come to Mass and be uncomfortable for an hour or go to hell and be uncomfortable for ever…~Fr. Bill