LOVE IN SUBSTITUTIVE SUFFERING


The gospel passage of today (Lk 24:35-48) is a continuation of Easter event – the appearance of risen Jesus to the Apostles. This is to show His disciples that He is indeed truly risen. In this encounter Jesus explains to them all that is written about Himself in the laws of Moses, Prophets and Psalms (the three pillars of Judaism). Just as He opened the scriptures to the disciples on the way to Emmaus, here in the upper room Jesus opens the scriptures to the apostles and all who are with them. The sufferings of Messiah, the cruel death of Jesus are foretold in the scriptures. The suffering is needed to show the immeasurable love of God. In celebrations and joyful moments such as birthday, marriage, graduation… we show our love toward others by our physical presence, in case of non-availability we at least make good use of social platforms to reach them out. Will we do the same thing in moment of their difficulty? If yes, it is a real love. Giving gifts for a birthday has good reputation at the same time lending a hand in moments of economic crisis, failures, sickness, suffering and death leaves a great impact on a beneficiary. Love shown in moment of need is a great deed. Thus, every suffering is an opportunity to show one’s love. This love becomes perfect when s/he shows love even in the midst of suffering. Helping a sufferer to get rid of it is a great deed, it becomes even greater deed when a sufferer helps the another sufferer. The rich man’s help is never greater than the help of the poor. It is even approved by our Lord, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”  (Mk12:43-44) this is what has happened on the cross. Jesus in his suffering freed the suffering humanity that is deprived of entering heavenly Jerusalem after life. His death on the cross veiled all our sins from the Father’s sight so that we could enter heaven securely.

The cross is also a love of substitution. In most cases we help the other to lessen their suffering or if possible eradicate it completely. There are also cases wherein we can free the person from suffering if we bear them as substitutes. A husband may help the wife to clean the house. It is an act of charity and an expression of love. This charity and expression of love reaches perfection when a husband takes the full charge of cleaning the house and freeing the wife to concentrate on other things. This is what happened on the cross. Instead of we (wives/brides) cleaning our house of life from sin, Jesus our husband (bridegroom) took full charge of cleaning and freed us from making numerous penances and pilgrimages. He was our substitute to atone for our sins (1Jn 2:2). The greatness of this substitute is, it is God who acted as our substitute. Jesus who died on the cross is not mere another human, He is God in human form.

In the first reading Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 St. Peter filled with the Holy Spirit explains to the people what exactly the risen Jesus did to Him and the disciples – opening the scriptures… all that is written about Jesus in the laws of Moses, Prophets and Psalms. This opening of scriptures happens even today when every priest breaks the word of God from the pulpit. One thing to be noted is that the opening of scripture was done to people who already knew the scripture – the regular hearing and studying of the scripture was part of Jewish life. Do we (christians) have the regular reading habit of scriptures? The priest may open the mysteries and hidden wisdom that lies beneath the word of God, but it is we the faithful who suppose to do the physical opening of the scriptures regularly.

As we are in the third Sunday of easter season, let us open ourselves to the preaching’s of priests and the servants of the Lord. May the Holy Spirit open to us the mysteries about our God through them. May our faith in risen Jesus reach its fulfillment by the actualization of His commandment. As St. John tells in the second reading 1Jn 2:1-5 ‘it is by our obedience to His commandment that we know that we are in Christ and He in us.’ His commandment is to love. To love is great but to love in the form of suffering is the greatest. May the peace of risen Jesus who veiled all our sins from the Father be with us all. Let our expression of love reach its perfection by being a substitute sufferers.      

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