His hour has come. Up until now, on several occasions, Jesus has said my hour has not yet come but now the hour of His Passion has come and he is troubled. But, this is what he came for and he gives a little parable to explain it.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

This is His life. This is why he came. He came to die for us. But, It’s not only His life; it’s the model for our life as His disciples. As St. Paul says, If we have died with Him, we know that we shall also live with Him.

How do we die with Him?

Let’s go to our 2^nd reading. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

What does this mean that Jesus learned obedience and was made perfect? Isn’t he already perfect? As God yes; but as a man, he grew just like you and me and a key to his growth was suffering. There have basically been 4 responses to suffering: the Greeks saw that life is mostly emptiness and pain and the best we can do with suffering is accept it nobly. The Romans had a little more fight and saw suffering as a challenge to be conquered by stoic indifference. Ancient Judaism saw suffering as a punishment for sin but also as a means of atonement. The Christian view agrees with Judaism but also sees suffering as purifying us of our pride, our hardness, our indifference, in short, it can perfect us in love. That’s what it did for Jesus and ultimately, He was made perfect in his suffering on the cross.

But it wasn’t the physical pain that was His greatest suffering. I heard this recently and it makes sense. It was the realization that even with this sacrifice, there would still be people who would reject Him. It’s like at the Bread of Life discourse in John 6 when many of his followers left Him. They said, this is a hard saying, who can stand it, and they left, and He turned to His apostles and asked if they too were going to leave? That’s what causes His greatest suffering. As He said on the cross “I thirst”. He is consumed with love. He will suffer anything that we might have life, and it was His perfect love, His perfect obedience that broke the power of Satan and redeemed us.

Now, that’s Jesus; but as I said before, Jesus is our model. As His followers, we are called to be like Him. But, how can we possibly love as perfectly as He did?

Well, assuming all the basics like faith and His grace working in us, then we are made perfect the same way He was, through our suffering. Romans 8, “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Acts 14 “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” James 1: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Suffering with Him perfects us in love.

I’m thinking of my own dad here. My dad is 85 years old and he obviously has some health issues; but, he’s relatively good. My mom has had a couple of strokes and has some dementia. Her memory has gotten quite bad and she can’t do what she used to do – she can’t prepare meals, clean, etc. My dad has become her caretaker. And he does it with my mom berating him. She doesn’t mean it; but it’s like every time she says something or asks my dad something, it’s like she’s annoyed with him. He might be preparing hamburgers for dinner and she’ll ask in a somewhat angry tone, what are you mixing in the meat? Almost everything she says to him sounds like she’s annoyed. And my dad, is not a docile easy-going guy by nature. He had a temper. But, now he says he’s convinced that this is the job God has given him. That he’s here to take care of mom for however long they live. Suffering is perfecting him in love.

My mom’s mom had full-blown Alzheimer’s for the last several years of her life. At one point they couldn’t care for her any longer and had to move her into a nursing home. My grandpa could have continued living with my parents but he basically voluntarily became a resident in the nursing home so he could be in the same room with my grandma 24/7, even though her mind was basically gone. She was his life.

Then of course there’s my wife Joni and now my son Eric who have shown me what it looks like to suffer with Jesus. Especially Joni because she’s been at it for many years now. She does everything she can to avoid suffering but sometimes nothing works and when that happens, she prays and unites it to Jesus’s suffering. Jesus makes it possible for suffering to be an act of love. We can unite our suffering with Jesus for somebody. I remember a priest saying that when he goes to a parish one of the first things he does is get in touch with the parishioners who are in chronic pain because they become his prayer warriors. When he needs prayers for someone, he turns to his prayer warriors because suffering willingly accepted and united to the cross of Jesus is powerful; but its also a lifeline for the person suffering. He said one time, he got an email from one of his prayer warriors and all she said was “I need a name”. “I need a name”. I need someone to live for.

So, our suffering with Him, our Cross if you will, makes us perfect, just like it did Him. So, are you suffering? Are you struggling with something? Do you have a cross? If so, thank God.

I’ll never forget many years ago when our kids were young and we were part of a family retreat group down at Camp Maria and Father Stack was our Priest, on one occasion we were talking about the cross and he said, we should be very wary if we don’t have a cross. It was not only what he said, but the way he said it. He was basically saying if we don’t have a cross, that’s not a good thing.

So, if you have a cross, thank God. He is working on you. You belong to Christ – you’re one of His and as Mother Teresa learned from a Priest when she was deep in her suffering, it’s Him kissing you. That was huge for her.

On Day 16 of Fr. Gaitley’s book “33 Days to Morning Glory”, he has a magnificent letter written by Mother Teresa to her sisters in which she explains her understanding of Jesus’s words “I thirst”. She says “I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus – one to one – you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel – but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus – not from books but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you?”

We have 2 more weeks of Lent before the great feast of Easter. Let’s use this time well. Let’s intensify our prayer – really hear Jesus in our hearts and let us embrace our cross. Our cross is our salvation. When we pick up our cross and follow Him, it changes us. We become better. We become like Him.

God bless you all.