But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.
Rejoice when we suffer. This is not a normal reaction to suffering. By definition, suffering means to be exposed to or to experience something bad or unpleasant. To be human means to suffer, whether in our own experiences or those of our loved ones. How could our reaction to that be to rejoice?
The accompanying reflection provides some further thoughts. It’s from Pope John Paul II, and contemplates the cross. He writes that the cross is the very symbol of our Christian faith. A cross is an icon – a sign of things much more complicated than two perpendicular lines. With the cross, we see how humanity treated Jesus. Through that, we see how we treat each other. Jealousy, betrayal, abuse, and ultimately killing. The cross is the sign of all things evil. And we gladly adorn our houses of worship, homes, and ourselves with this icon.
But greater than these evils, the cross is the sign of all things good. Restoration, renewal, forgiveness, defeat of evil, life.
The cross isn’t one or the other. It isn’t an icon of only bad or good. It tells us of both. If we forget that and only see the good, we lose the incredible joy that the good brings, because we haven’t contemplated walked through the suffering.
This is why and how we rejoice at suffering. It’s when we suffer that Christ’s love and power and mercy are so starkly amazing. This reminds me of when I’ve been sick and that first day when I’m feeling better. I feel like I can leap tall buildings. The contrast between how I felt before and how I feel when I’m even a little better is predictable, and I’m more grateful for the good, after having been through the bad.
This morning, I’m thinking about how to read even more into a cross, how to see it as both an icon of the suffering and the subsequent greater joy that we experience as Christians.
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