October 13
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!”
Readings
Reflection
What do we say about suffering, either our own or that of others? Today’s responsorial psalm is a collection of petitions from a suffering community. The people of that community have found themselves in great distress, and this distress has not been brief, but has been long occurring. Now the people are complaining to God and asking, “How long must we endure?”
The Psalmist writes about people who have a covenantal relationship with God, thus they truly believe God will deliver them from their plight. It is interesting that they only question why they themselves suffer, not why others around them, namely their enemies, experience the same fate.
This probably sounds familiar; we too lament over our sufferings and the sufferings of those whom we love and associate. One of our downfalls may be that we do not question why those who we may perceive as enemies suffer. Indeed, we may wish them to suffer and therefore feel vindicated when bad fortune falls upon them.
When we find ourselves in the exhausted position of worrying about our sufferings and disregarding the pain of others, we make ourselves less open to a reversal of fortunes because we are failing to think as God thinks. Jesus teaches us to see the other person’s pain and do something about it. Do we offer a soothing balm to those who are in distress, or do we continue to focus on our own pain while thinking we do not deserve to suffer while others do.
May Christ come into our hearts so that we may see everyone as a child of God, and worthy of redemption.
Peace,
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