S167P6 – Sources of joy: his sufferings
Lk. 6:22-23
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Before Saul became Paul, he had an interesting conversation with Jesus. Saul had been a persecutor of the Church, and he had been responsible at least in part for the deaths of many Christians. When Jesus approached him on the road to Damascus, his question might have been confusing. He did not ask why Saul had been persecuting his disciples or his Church. He asked why Saul had been persecuting him. [Acts 9:4-6] The message of this question was clear: in persecuting the Church, Saul was persecuting Christ himself. The passage above drives home the same point that our suffering and persecution here are really his persecution because it is directed at him.
We cannot speak of the sufferings of Christ only in the past tense. Although He endured persecution unto death while a man on Earth, He is persecuted still today. What Jesus tells us is that this persecution, which comes by way of the Church as proxy, actually should bring us joy. It should cause us to rejoice. One reason is that we are suffering for the one who suffered so greatly for us. It should bring us joy to give that back to him. The other reason, which is clear in this passage, is that we will receive a reward on that day for what we endure now. Those who suffer for the sake of Christ’s name will not go empty-handed, and their response to that suffering now should reflect what they believe will happen then.
When we face persecution because of our faith, or when we hear of others enduring great pain for the same reason, we might think first to pray for deliverance. While there is nothing wrong with asking God to comfort and heal and protect, we also must remember that our suffering can be his will for his purposes. Whether that suffering ends in a moment or takes us to our death, we are to find joy in the Church being able to share that with Christ. Graciously, even though the Lord is the one who gets us through those trials faithfully, He still rewards us in the end. Father, help us to remember that Jesus lives through us when we suffer for him, and keep our eyes on the reward ahead for the faithful.