Today we celebrate Jesus, the suffering Messiah. He is the one of
whom Isaiah foretold: “My face I did not shield from buffets
and spitting. He is the Christ who took the form of a slave, ...
obediently accepting even death, death on a cross.” He is the
savior who “suffered willingly for sinners” and whose
suffering makes us pleasing to God.
We all suffer in our own way. We experience physical pain and
hardship. We suffer watching our friends and relatives suffer. We
are often offended or abandoned by others, and we add to our
suffering by our own sinfulness.
The world around us is filled with suffering: the victims of war and
poverty; people living in streets or in shantytowns; starving
children; lonely elderly; people dying of AIDS, cancer, or some
other disease.
Today’s liturgy teaches us “to welcome our
suffering,” to bear witness to God by following Christ’s
example of suffering. We pray that the world “united with him
in his suffering on the cross may share his resurrection and new
life.”
Had Jesus merely said that his mission was to set people free from sin and all forms of oppression, his words would have fallen on deaf ears. He had to work at this task of liberation. He not only talked about freeing the poor and oppressed but, undeterred by criticism, actually welcomed the poor and sinners to share at his table. Like Jesus, we must be able to accompany others in their suffering and be willing to suffer with them.
U.S. Bishops, To the Ends of the Earth, 1986, 48.