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No slave above his master

(Mt 10:24)

          The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, promulgated by Pope Paul VI in December 1965 opens with the following lines: The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in a way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men. These words express the truth that the Church is a human community. Indeed Christian communities are composed of mere mortals. Couples for Christ is no exception. It too is composed of men and women who have “fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ.”

            When we join Couples for Christ, we experience periods of great spiritual consolation. After our baptism in the Holy Spirit and after attending the Marriage Enrichment Retreat, we feel a spiritual high. We feel so close to God. We enjoy tremendously the company of our brothers and sisters in the community. We are eager to serve. It is a great feeling, a wonderful emotional experience. We feel something close to what Peter, James and John perhaps felt when they witnessed the transfiguration of Christ. We feel so happy that we can almost exclaim like Peter, “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” (Mt 17:4).

            As we grow spiritually, we are given more responsibility. We become household leaders. The weekly prayer meeting becomes twice weekly and we take on the responsibility of guiding the spiritual growth of the couples in our household. In addition, we are assigned to serve in the Christian Life Programs and the various formation and training programs of CFC. The twice-weekly involvement in community activities becomes three or four times weekly. As the membership grows, some are called to greater service as unit leaders or coordinators of family ministries.

            As we move up the leadership ladder, we begin to live an increasingly intense life with more and more members of the community. We interact and coordinate with and seek the assistance of more and more people. Various concerns are brought to us for resolution. Soon we start noticing that different people have different approaches to achieving the same goal; that different people have different levels of commitment to service; that different people have varying degrees of spiritual maturity; that some people are more sensitive than others; and that some are more dependable than others. In other words, we begin to realize that our community is a community of mere mortals – renewed in and empowered by the Holy Spirit, yes, but mere human beings nonetheless.

     It is a mystery, but somehow it has become part of God’s plan for those whom he is calling to higher and greater service to test and strengthen them through some form of suffering. This is perhaps why Scriptures warn us: My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing (Sir 2:1). Because the CFC community is made up of mere mortals, difficulties in personal relationships are a common source of emotional suffering among many of its members. Unmet expectations and disappointments are other common causes. Perceived unfaithfulness and ingratitude of brothers and sisters in the community are still other causes.

   Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic letter on the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, Salvifici Dolores, made the following observation: Sacred Scripture is a great book about suffering. Let us quote from the books of the Old Testament a few examples of situations which bear the signs of suffering, and above all moral suffering: the danger of death (Is 38:1-3), the death of one’s own children (2 Sam 19:1), and, especially, the death of the firstborn and only son (Jer 6:26); and then too: the lack of offspring (1 Sam 1:6-10), nostalgia for the homeland (Ps 137), persecution and hostility of the environment (Jer 18:18), mockery and scorn of the one who suffers (Is 53:3), loneliness and abandonment (Jer 15:17); and again: the remorse of conscience (Zec 12:10), the difficulty of understanding why the wicked prosper and the just suffer (Ec 4:1-3), the unfaithfulness and ingratitude of friends and neighbors (Job 10:19); and finally: the misfortunes of one’s own nation (Dan 9:16-19).

   Among members of Christian communities, a common type of suffering is “emotional suffering” resulting from perceived “unfaithfulness and ingratitude of friends” who are their own brothers and sisters in the community. This is neither new nor unique. Even the Psalmist of the Old Testament cries: If an enemy had reviled me, that I could bear. If my foe had viewed me with contempt, from that I could hide. But it was you, my other self, my comrade and friend, you, whose company I enjoyed, at whose side I walked in procession in the house of God (Ps 55:13-15).

    My brothers and sisters, I am aware that some of you are experiencing a period of spiritual desolation and are suffering. I want you to remember that our Lord suffered voluntarily and innocently. I ask you therefore to reflect on his words: A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master (Mt 10:24-25).

   Our Lord reminds us here that as students and servants we cannot expect a fate easier than that of our Teacher and Master. He tells us that the ideal for us to aim at is similarity with him. As mere servants we cannot be above him who is our Lord. We share in his power as disciples but we also share in his sufferings. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ (2 Cor 1:5).

   Let us listen once more to Pope John Paul II: To share in the sufferings of Christ is, at the same time, to suffer for the Kingdom of God. In the eyes of the just God, before his judgment, those who share in the suffering of Christ become worthy of this Kingdom. Through their sufferings, in a certain sense they repay the infinite price of the Passion and death of Christ, which became the price of our Redemption: at this price the Kingdom of God has been consolidated anew in human history, becoming the definitive prospect of man’s earthly existence. Christ has led us into his Kingdom through his suffering. And also through suffering those surrounded by the mystery of Christ’s Redemption become mature enough to enter this Kingdom.

   Through suffering we become mature Christians. It is sometimes a test that comes to us from God to make sure that our faith is not based on feelings or emotions but on a relationship with and a commitment to Christ. We become stronger disciples when we learn how to cope with suffering. Indeed we come out more mature, more dependent on the Lord and less on our own abilities! Our commitment to the community no longer depends on our relationship with our emotions and feelings, but on our relationship with the Lord who called us.

   My brothers and sisters, our suffering should make us realize that our covenant in Couples for Christ is not a covenant with Couples for Christ but a covenant with the Lord. As such suffering should strengthen our commitment so that, like St. Paul, we can say: Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:35,38-39).

   Finally, we should take to heart the advice of St. Peter: Rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed (1 Pt 4:13).

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