Stages of Suffering

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 -- Tuesday in Holy Week

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this link -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 957)
Psalms 6, 12 (morning) // 94 (afternoon)
Lamentations 1:17-22
2 Corinthians 1:8-22
Mark 11:27-33


There are so many different places in the process of suffering. At the beginning of his second letter to the congregation in Corinth, Paul tells them of a crisis he's survived in Asia. He describes it this way: "for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death." That's about as bad as it gets. I've never faced that myself, but I've sure known a lot of friends who have. Paul's next phrase is significant. It describes his response to his crisis. After saying, "we felt that we had received the sentence of death," he continues, "so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead."

That is the surrender that frees. He knows the deep freedom of being in God's life. "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." Now that he is on the other side of this threat, he continues to set his hope on God, and he thanks the Corinthians for their prayers.

The cries of Lamentations come from a different place of suffering. Jerusalem has been destroyed and her leaders deported into exile. There is no relief. There is only deep grief and mourning. "Zion stretches out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her; ...Jerusalem has become a filthy thing..." There is some reflection on the folly and unfaithfulness that contributed to their catastrophe. There is resentment toward those allies who failed them. There is the pitiful cry for revenge. But there is no voice of hope. The anguished words are directed toward God nonetheless. There is still the relationship, the conversation with God in spite of the darkness.

As I read today's scriptures, I'm haunted particularly by one verse in psalm 12 and how it connects with the plight of the fallen Jerusalem. The psalmist writes, "Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery, I will rise up, says the Lord, and give them the help they long for." Part of the self-reflection of the despoiled Jerusalem was about its failure to obey the commands of God to care for the poor and needy and to oppose all oppression. In the recrimination of their misery, they are able to recognize that they failed to follow that basic law of community.

The fundamental accusation of all of the prophets is the warning spoken in this psalm. If you do not act with justice and compassion toward the needy and poor, God will hear the cry of their suffering and will bring down judgment upon the whole society. The prophets are the ones who do their suffering before-the-fact. They are the ones who can see the catastrophe approaching, when something can be done to reverse it. History is not too encouraging though. We rarely listen to the prophets and change our ways.