Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
A few years ago, I listened to a sermon by a preacher who challenged the concept of co-suffering with Christ as St. Paul propagated. The preacher argues that if we were to suffer with Christ and carry the cross with Him, does it mean that God will create many crosses and put them on our shoulders? The preacher asserts further that does that mean God and Christ somehow seek to harm believers? A senior priest who proclaims himself a recovering academic responds to the sermon by asking, "What has he been reading?" St. Paul's answer to the question of whether God and Christ seek to harm believers appears in his letter to the Romans: NO. God is for us (Deus Pro Nobis). No matter what comes, God’s love and Christ’s love is certain.
Indeed, Paul talks a lot about the experiences of co-suffering and groaning that believers face, especially the hardships they endure. Nevertheless, the present suffering does not mean that God is against us. God will undoubtedly want to bring us to glory and will certainly complete the work of salvation. Nor does the present suffering mean that Jesus wants to bring harm to us. For this reason, Paul presents his final thesis, “in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.” The Jews deal with suffering by enduring it through the end, when possible, resisting and overcoming it. The Stoic attitude towards suffering was to conquer it by recognizing its inability to affect the true, inner self. But Paul's attitude was that those in Christ must be hyper-conquerors in the midst of suffering because they know God's love and possess hope as they suffer with Christ, since nothing can separate us from God's love.