Reflections for Sunday
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 5, 2003
Jesus was made lower than the angels for a time that he might taste death because of God's care for all. And because he suffered death he was crowned with glory and honor. God fulfilled our Savior through suffering, and thus brought many to glory. The one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are from one God, so he is not ashamed to call them brothers.Hebrews 2: 9-11
Fulfillment Through Suffering
From our very beginning God has looked upon our human family with a Father's love. He takes delight in the children of the earth, and he longs to draw us to himself in an everlasting love.
So great is God's love that he is moved to sorrow at the sufferings of man. We are incomplete in body and spirit, and we groan with all creation as we struggle to reach wholeness. God could not bear to let us suffer the human condition alone, so he sent his Son to take on flesh and to live in the world as a man. In embracing the human condition, he suffered like all of us. He even surrendered his spirit to the dark power of death to show the depth of his commitment to humanity.
This deep mystery is the source of our faith: that God died for us. By taking on all of the human condition, including suffering and death, God sanctified human life. He gave it a new meaning. Suffering and death no longer lead to despair because God has suffered too.
In our darkest hours we are closest to God. And in the ultimate darkness of death the light of God's glory will overpower us. He will draw us to his heart in the embrace of love. Suffering will come to an end, death will be no more, and love will be everlasting.
Father, so great is your love for us that you gave us your only Son that we might believe in him, and be led to eternal life. We give you thanks for so great a love. Shine the light of your truth in the darkness of our world, and guide us along the way to eternal life.