Wednesday Word . . . Present Sufferings
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time . . . – Collect for Wednesday in Holy Week, BCP 220
What does it mean to “accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time?” Are we asked to not complain about what we're going through? Are we asked to lie there and take it? Are we asked to say, “God knows best,” and give up?
I don't think that's what this prayer is asking of us.
Instead, what if this Collect is asking us to compare our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ during Holy Week? Are we suffering because we speak up for those on the margins? Are we suffering because we show compassion to those whom others ignore or abuse? Are we suffering because proclaim a Jesus who didn't resort to violence?
And yes, I know that our sufferings don't always revolve around the above. Sometimes we suffer because of a severe illness, chronic pain, the loss of a loved one, or end-of-life issues.
Suffering comes in many forms and many contexts, and there is no one size fits all way to deal with it.
So maybe what the Collect for this Wednesday in Holy Week is asking us to do is to continually make Christ our focus during all times of our life. Are people attacking us because of our faith? Then let us honestly compare what we proclaim to the teachings of Jesus and use that as our foundation. Are we in chronic pain? The let us continually live a life focused on the life of Christ, in order to show there's more to our life than pain. Are we dealing with end-of-life issues? Let us live in the hope of the resurrection.
All of this may come across as pithy answers that don't really address the issue. But it just may be that this Collect is asking us to find a way to gracefully live in a way that proclaims the presence of Christ, no matter what we're going through.
Blessings,
