Sharing & Suffering

The 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: Isa 53: 10-11; Ps 33; Heb 4: 14-16; Mk 10: 35-45

There once was a wonderful spiritual teacher of the Eastern Church by the name of Abba Joseph—Abba, of course, being a familiar title for “Father.” It’s the way that Jesus himself addressed the Father in prayer.

Abba Joseph told a marvelous story about hospitality and sharing in the desert of the Middle East, in the days when caravans traveled long distances over this brutal terrain. Then, as now, if a sandstorm came up, you could become totally disoriented. It would be easy to lose your way. If running out of water and food didn’t get you, the merciless sun could. You could easily die.

It’s no surprise that the law of the desert was hospitality. If travelers came along, you would always share whatever provisions they needed—because one day, the tables could be turned.

Abba Joseph tells of a man and his wife who had set out on a very long journey. They brought along a large quantity of bread to sustain themselves. In case you’re wondering how you could keep bread fresh for many months, I’ll fill you in on a Middle East trick. Perhaps we can call this a desert gourmet tip. What you do is make a very thick, very dense crust out of salt and flour. It’s almost like plaster. The bread gets hermetically sealed inside. Then, when you crack open the outer shell, the bread is fresh and soft just as if it were newly baked.

Well, this man and wife with all the bread had pitched their camp in the desert to have a little rest. Before long, another small caravan came along—and the travelers and their camels weren’t in very good shape. They obviously were on their last legs, but God led them to this couple. And for this, the man and his wife praised God with great joy.

“This calls for a celebration!” said the man. He had his guests sit down in the tent. His wife ran to bring in bread to eat, and as soon as she brought in a loaf, he would split it open and offer it to their guests. She kept bringing bread, and he kept cracking the loaves open—until they opened every single loaf they had—far more bread than they could possibly eat.

Even though they went through all their provisions, the man and his wife knew that the proper response to God’s wild generosity was wild, almost reckless, generosity of their own. So they shared what they had totally. And as a result, they had confident hope that God would continue to shower his abundant blessings on them.

Abba Joseph ends his parable there. We don’t know what happened to this loving and big-hearted couple. Perhaps someone else shared with them, helping them to complete their own journey successfully. Or maybe they perished for lack of food. Either way, this holy desert priest knew that the couple would win sooner or later: sharing and suffering always bring tremendous blessings in the end. Indeed, they lead to the prime seats in the kingdom of heaven that the sons of Zebedee were after.

This is the lesson that Jesus teaches in today’s gospel. Whenever we generously share what we have, or put ourselves at the service of another to lighten his burden, there is always some degree of suffering entailed. Sharing and suffering go hand in hand. The suffering or sacrifice may be small, or it may be huge—such as giving up all your bread like the people in Abba Joseph’s story… or offering up your very life like Our Lord himself.

Whatever the depth of sacrifice, God always invites us to put our suffering at the service of others. You might say that we’re asked to use our suffering in a spiritual way—to unite our suffering to Jesus’ own Passion. As Christ tells John and James today: From the cup I drink of you shall drink; the bath I am baptized in you shall share. And this is not a threat, but a blessing!

For those of us striving to advance in holiness, how good and profitable it is to stop every now and then and examine ourselves on how well we’re doing in the sharing and suffering department. If we’re honest with ourselves, I know that we would agree that we could do better at serving others more and complaining less.

In fact, it would be an excellent resolution to do just that.

A good, achievable resolution has to be more specific, though. You can’t just say, “I resolve to be a better person.” That’s not too helpful as a self-improvement plan. But if you think about it, you’ll see that there are two main reasons why we don’t share as much as we ought to—and these are the hurdles we have to address.

Probably the biggest obstacle is our insensitivity to suffering people around us. Lots of times, we just don’t notice that someone else is hurting. We get so wrapped up in our own lives and interests that we barely pay attention to other people and their needs. That’s why we might see somebody struggling with something and not offer to help… or why we might ignore calling on friends and relatives who are sick at home, in the hospital or in the nursing home—or even someone in prison… or why we might fail to offer a word of comfort to someone dealing with loss or pain or loneliness or rejection. All of these are examples of other people’s suffering that we should make a conscious effort to be more attuned to.

The second reason we don’t give as much of ourselves as we should is fear. We’re afraid that too much may be demanded of us. We’re afraid that we don’t have enough time. We’re afraid that we’ll say or do the wrong thing. We’re afraid that we may be opening up a can of worms. True, everything in life entails some risk. But we must trust that God will bless us, especially if we’re trying to be a better neighbor.

Both of these obstacles—insensitivity and fear—can be overcome through prayer. We should make Paul’s words our own: Let us confidently approach the throne of grace for timely help. Turn to the Lord daily to seek his blessing. Ask to see through Christ-like eyes and feel with a Christ-like heart. Gaze upon the crucifix and remind yourself how much less Jesus asks of you than he demanded of himself.

Above all, remember that Our Lord will never be outdone in generosity. When you share your gifts and put them at the service of others, and when you bear sufferings with a willing heart, you will certainly be blessed with God’s favor.

We pray that the Lord will help us all to be like that.