The 1st Reading points to Christ the suffering servant. The reason for enduring pain and difficulties is faith in God’s succour or assistance and we dare to be unafraid because God will always come to the aid of His servant. This assurance is truly the joy of saints. Imagine being wiped out or being made redundant. People no longer respect and no longer recognise you. Even when one endures injustice, one is unafraid because of God.
The experience of the Suffering Servant is a guarantee of God’s faithfulness. He will not allow His servant to be annihilated and this becomes the basis for accepting the suffering Messiah. Jesus foretold His impending suffering. He did not sugar-coat the troubles that lay ahead. But Jesus promised them that their sacrifice would not go unrewarded. The Evangelist presents this sort of Saviour as the model to follow. Are we going after Him and if not, what prevents us from following?
The answer is partly determined by the world because the world’s expectations is different from Christ’s. He asks for a discipleship that is radical and resolute—to lay down one’s life without fear. But we have loud voices coming from the world. One of the counsels given is prudence. We are advised to temper our radicality. Furthermore, radicality is also tarred with the brush of extremism and no one likes to be called a fundamentalist—a word that suggests of imprudence and uncompromising hard-headedness. More than being labelled, radical discipleship is also considered to be “fool-hardy” and no one likes to be deemed a fool.
Instead, worldly prudence demands that we be even-headed, even-tempered or level-headed. Idealism is the foolishness of the young. But what undergirds this “prudence” is basically fear. Many of us are afraid. We fear rejection and so we do not try. We fear failure and so we compromise. We fear scarcity and rationalise our greed. Fear is a prison that dampens the fire of our desire to love the Lord and to follow Him closely.
But we are not alone. Even as devout a Jew as Peter would have heard of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. After this revelation of Jesus about His future suffering, Peter tried to temper Christ’s resolution to carry out the Father’s will. The idea of a great God is almost incompatible with servitude and suffering. We want an omnipotent God who displays His power for all to see. The idea of a powerless God scandalised Peter that he began to remonstrate with Christ.
Peter only began to understand more of his vocation after Christ’s death and resurrection. It proves that growing into a radical discipleship of Christ might be for some of us a life-long pilgrimage. Sometimes when a person is young, he or she will never contemplate the after-life. They have a lot to live for. But for many of us, whose past stretches in a long shadow behind us, we have little time before death to think of our legacy and how we will be judged.
The logic of the world does not allow us to embrace Christ’s invitation. “If you want to be a disciple of mine, you must deny yourself, take up your Cross and follow me. And whoever wishes to preserve his life will lose it and he who loses his life for my sake will keep it”. This is not easy to embrace but it is not impossible.
Present society is pain-phobic meaning that we avoid pain at all costs. In fact, we numb ourselves through drugs of all kinds. Even food is a form of narcotics. But St Paul, through the grace and power of Christ, tells us that he completes in his body, the suffering lacking in the Body of Christ. It is not impossible to carry the Cross because of the grace and power of Christ. Martyrdom, be it red or white, is a grace of Christ. It might not feel like it but the true shape of love is cruciform. Without the Cross, love will don the cloak of convenience. There is purpose in our pain and sorrow, not that we deserve to suffer. Instead, in Christ, suffering takes on a salvific role for in Him, suffering saves.
This Sunday’s Gospel in the midst of nowhere is a reminder to refocus and fix our eyes on Christ and His Cross. We are invited to clasp Christ carrying His Cross for the salvation of the world. Many of us will struggle because it is natural to desire the crown minus the Cross. But if we follow Him, the Cross will cast its shadow over us. The credibility of the Christian conviction rests on the crown of the Cross. The Cross is indeed our victory and glory forever.
