Sunday, November 26, 2017
suffer: now or later?
St John Chrysostom talks to us today about suffering. He says that we have a choice: alot of suffering now, and none in after we die. Or some now, and some then. Or all of it then. He says that his advice is to suffer all of it now, and he says that saving all of it for later is the worst choice of all.
What is all this talk of suffering? Well, the story of the rich man and Lazarus gives us some understanding. The rich man ate his fill every day and ignored the suffering of the poor man Lazarus, who barely had enough to eat from the scraps of the rich man's table, and who had sores that the dogs licked. After death, the rich man (who seemed to suffer very little or not at all in this life) suffered greatly, and Lazarus was taken "into Abraham's bosom".
If we couple that story with the verse in the pic above, and then relate it to the story that Jesus tells in today's gospel reading, we get a much clearer picture of what this all means. In today's gospel, Jesus tells us that story about "what we do to the least of these", we do to Him. And those who take care of Him are sent to a very happy place, while those who did NOT feed Him or visit Him in prison are sent into the darkness where there is gnashing of teeth.
These three scriptures together give us a good idea of what it's all about. In this life, we have opportunities to help those who suffer. In helping them, we suffer some ourselves. We don't have all of our money to spend on whatever we want. We have to visit people who are smelly and maybe have bad manners and aren't appreciative of what we do for them. But the more we do for them anyway, the more we store up "treasures in heaven" which are not burned away "as through fire", and we enjoy a greater reward in the next life.
The more selfish we are now, the less reward we'll have waiting for us. If we suffer in this life, and by doing so help those who need help, then we reap a greater reward later. But if we are selfish now, we burn up all of our treasures and even though we're saved, it's as though through fire. Burned eyebrows and all.
So that brings us back to St John. He advises us to suffer more now. Give. Give until it's uncomfortable. C.S. Lewis said that you'll know when you've given enough because it will "pinch." Until we've given at least that much, we're still storing up our treasures where they'll "burn up."
If we do some for the poor, but keep most for ourselves, we fall into that middle camp of some suffering now, some later. And of course, we don't want to do like the rich man and ignore Lazarus. That doesn't bode well in any of the stories.
So let's help those in need. Let's give until it at least pinches. Let's pour out love on those who need it, while we're here in the wealthiest nation on earth. And don't forget, prayer is the most powerful thing you can do. Pray for those who need help, like those suffering in Puerto Rico even still, or those under severe religious intolerance in North Korea. Prayers do more than money. But we can do both.
God, thanks for calling us to give now, so we see less of our treasures burned up in that fire.
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