Monday, October 12, 2009

Dear Renewers--
Welcome to a new week. We are nearing the end of the Liturgical Year and Thanksgiving is barely a month away. If you're like most of us, the year has seen its ups and downs. The readings for this Sunday seem to me to proclaim that hackneyed but eminently pithy old adage, "No pain, no gain". If the past year brought pain, here's hoping there was something gained from it.

You can find the readings for this 29th Sunday in Numbered-Sundays Time, on the web at http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/101809.shtml, and in your Bible in:

Isaiah 53.10-11
Psalm 33.4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
Hebrews 4.14-16
Mark 10.35-45

The First Reading brings the "no pain, no gain" idea out clearly. Look at that first verse (Is. 53.10). "The LORD was pleased to crush him in infirmity. If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendents in a long life!" If you remind yourself that this is referring to two of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, you see that the pain and the gain were in the same place. God wasn't sitting up in heaven taking pot shots at some poor slob on earth. He was going through the pain -- and the gain -- himself. "Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many" (v. 11). Much has been said about this concept of the Suffering Servant, but it bears repeating so we never forget. We are the happy recipients of the gain, that is, justification, thanks to God's own Son's suffering.

So do we get the gain without the pain? Certainly not without at least a little pain! In the Responsorial Psalm the psalmist proclaims that we can count on the LORD. His word is upright, his works are trustworthy (Ps. 33.4). The eyes of the LORD are upon us "to deliver them [us] from death in spite of famine" (v. 19). To me this means we are delivered from eternal spiritual death, but not from trials and tribulations in this temporal life. We may still experience some famine. So, for us too, there is pain with the gain, but not unbearable pain.

The Second Reading acknowledges that there will be trials, tests, even failures, but we should not panic. "Let us hold fast to our confession" (Heb. 4.14), because we have a High Priest who understands our weaknesses... who's been there... done that... even got the t-shirt (think of that "t" as a cross!) Now, he was God -- he didn't slip -- but he knows what we go through (v. 15). Therefore it's okay to go to him when we slip and need some understanding, mercy, grace... when we need some TLC (v. 16).

The Gospel Reading relates the instructive incident of James and John Zebedeeson's bid for preferential seating in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mark 10.37). Jesus talked to them about pain before gain. He said, "Whoever wishes to be great among you [gain] will be your servant [pain]. Whoever wishes to be first among you [gain] will be the slave of all [pain]" (vs. 43, 44). So there is no gain without pain. And that holds for us as well as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (v. 45). But the pain will give us perspective on the value of the gain. And always there is the Throne of Grace where we can be confident of receiving balm for our hurts, and help for our shortcomings.

Have a great, gainful week, folks, and let's not shy away from the pain of gain.

Randy Jones
"Those who cannot take the pain say there is no gain!"

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