Canon Gerry Conroy
It is difficult to imagine the pain that the people of Ukraine are experiencing as they see their homeland destroyed in front of them. It isn’t simply the destruction of their homes that they are having to deal with, but the sense that their homeland, and all that entails: their sense of identity, their national pride, is being assaulted by the invasion of their land by a more powerful enemy. Who knows how things will turn out for them, or for us, because we are all affected by this war. It is one more uncertainty that we must live with; but uncertainty is a fact of life – something we cannot control.
In the face of such suffering and injustice, in the face of any suffering and injustice, some people struggle to find any meaning not only in the suffering but in the world. That seems to be the particular curse of this Modern age. But then this modern age has lost its sense of the connection between this life and eternal life. At best it sees the two as sitting beside one another: one moment you are alive in this world, the next you are in heaven – or nowhere. When it is isolated from eternity, this world is without sense; the suffering and injustice that takes place in it is without meaning or purpose; there is only the chaos that triumphs just as the chaos of war seems to triumph, just as the emptiness of death can seem to have the final word.
I wonder about the conversation that Jesus was having with Moses and Elijah about his passing in Jerusalem. Did they question him about the meaning of his death? Did they speak about the suffering and injustice in life that robs it of its meaning, or, because they shared his glory, were they able to see meaning and purpose even in suffering? I imagine that if we were to speak to Christ about his suffering and its meaning, the conversation would also encompass the value or meaning of suffering in our own life. Perhaps that is a conversation we should all have with God. Could it be that is why God tells us to listen to
him. That he has something to say to us that will give meaning to our life and all its strange twists and turns.
Whatever he has to say, it must surely be linked to the homeland that is ours; Not the place here on earth but our eternal homeland in heaven. Not something that simply follows on from our time on earth, but something God promises to those who keep his covenant, just as he promised a homeland to Abraham, and as he promises to those who listen to what Christ has to say to us, as God told us to do in the Gospel.
This Gospel links the suffering and death of Christ with his glory; suffering, death and glory, things we would normally not put together, but they are put together for us. It is to tell us not to fear the suffering, not to fear death, or at least not to let our fears make us forget our hope, because in Christ there is a glory that awaits us, a homeland free from suffering and death, free from injustice and evil. This has been brought to us through the obedience of Christ and it will come to us through our obedience to his word.
We need perseverance in our Lenten penances, to rejoice at Easter, we need perseverance in our fidelity to Christ to rejoice at the resurrection to eternal life.