When is enough… enough?
The prophet Elijah is in a bad way. He says, “This is enough O Lord!” He has just enjoyed a triumph over the pagan prophets of the god Baal on Mount Carmel. In doing so, he outraged Queen Jezebel, who brought the prophets of Baal to Israel. She has sworn to kill Elijah, and he had to flee. We find him physically and spiritually exhausted, from his trials. He wants God to save him—it’s enough.
At times haven’t you wanted to say what Elijah says to God? Perhaps you might be going through personal issues and there are days that just tax our patience, endurance and even faith. We too could add our voices to Elijah’s, “This is enough, O Lord!”
I may have shared with you the following example of exhaustion with God. Now that I’m 73 I have an excuse for repeating myself or is it 80—I forget. A woman was going through so much suffering in her life and she called and said, “I know many say that God never gives us more than we can handle, but Father please do me a favor, the next time you pray for me, let God know He’s got the wrong person.” We both cracked up.
It is a strange anomaly in our spiritual journey and faith that suffering brings us either closer to God or distances us from God. It depends on our choice—and I’m not saying that the choice is always easy. One of the main teachings of Jesus is that through our suffering we can find hope and God’s great love for us. All the façades are stripped away. The masks that we wear to hide ourselves, whether from fear of rejection or uncertainty in who we are, are taken off, and we end up on our knees humbled before God looking for relief, hope and answers. We even ask the questions that may never get answered—WHY me Lord, or why my child Lord—those many “whys” come out and we go before God wanting answers.
Even Jesus doesn’t clearly answer the many why questions of suffering. However, he answers the question of how to endure such suffering. It is through intimacy with him—to go to him for that bridge to heaven—his real presence—the Eucharist that comes from the cross. One of the reasons we come to Mass is for such hope in suffering. The Lord teaches us that there can be meaning through suffering—a message we do not want to hear or accept perhaps, but life teaches us it is true. Somehow through suffering we can encounter Christ in a deeper way—even find peace!
If we unite our suffering to the Lord’s suffering He endured on the cross out of great love for us, our burdens can become lighter as we take up our cross with Him. It is with such a willful surrender that we use one of the richest Catholic spiritual exercises—that of unitive suffering. Going to the cross of Christ—uniting with him and offering up what we endure for the good of others, for the good of someone who may be suffering more than me. Enduring the suffering, in a sense, is to lighten the load of the cross of Jesus. For his suffering “back then on the cross” was for all human suffering “until the end of time.” As God on the cross, He knows all human suffering-prior to the crucifixion, now in our time, and until the end of time. In a mystical sense, Jesus the Christ, true God and true man on the cross 2,000 years ago is enduring our suffering now.
It doesn’t mean the burdens may immediately go away—as many of you know—but intimacy and being with the Lord on the cross helps lift our burden—ease the pain. With Jesus we find hope in knowing that He came to die that we might live. Jesus Christ is God’s loving care for us. And in the midst of suffering, perhaps these words may not provide total relief, but they can bring more endurance through intimacy and feeling more connected to our Savior. What do I mean? So often people have anger with God over a situation a problem, a pain that won’t go away and they feel they did nothing to cause. They cry out with the all too familiar words of abandonment –why is God letting this happen to me? Such a question of cause is like the cry of Jesus from the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ In spiritual counseling, I often invite people to make that their prayer—and personal. “God —I am angry with you, why are you letting this happen to me!” Tell it like it is God can take it. Be real with God, be intimate and open.
Unity with God from God is the message of our gospel today. Jesus proclaims to the crowds that he has come to give himself for our sake and wellbeing. Jesus tells us he is the most intimate gift in our lives—he gives us his real presence, himself, he will die for us that we might live, and offers his suffering for us that we might find hope.
Take his invitation to tell him like it really is for he can take it he knows about innocent suffering-sacrificial suffering. That is why He gives us of Himself as the Bread of our Life here—the nourishment for our journey of faith, the hope for our daily conversion, the intimacy of oneness. Intimacy and truth in our relationship with him is our choice.
Let us try our best to unite our sufferings when they occur as he did for the good of others who may be suffering as much if not more than we are. Graces flow through unitive suffering in the Body of Christ and His Bread of Life given for the good of all.