Jesus Never Promised an Easy Life: He Gave Us a Cross

(Readings: 1 John 5:5-13 & 56:1-8;
Psalm 147: 12-20; and Mark 1:7-11)

The Jews believed the Messiah, the Christ, would save them from their oppressors. They believed He would be an all-powerful king who would defeat their enemy. They believed the Christ would clear the way for them to find happiness and success. But here’s the problem: they wanted freedom from earthly oppressors, defeat of earthly enemies, happiness, and success as the world sees it. They were thinking as St. Peter was in Matthew 18 when Jesus told him, “Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Of course, Jesus wants the good for all of us; He loves us. But what the Israelites didn’t understand—what we often fail to understand—is that Jesus did save mankind from its oppressor. He has defeated the enemy and has shown us the way to true happiness and success. He accomplished this not by overcoming any worldly entity but through His life, passion, death, and resurrection.

He defeated our true oppressor, the Devil, for eternity. The war is over, and Jesus has won. However, the enemy is the great deceiver, and even though he has lost—a fact that can never change—he wants us to believe that he won and that he has power over us.

The people didn’t understand this in Jesus’ time, and even though humanity has had 2000 years to study Jesus the Messiah, nothing has changed. We personally have had our entire lives to learn about His mission and purpose of Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity and why He humbled Himself to be born, live, suffer, and die as a lowly human. Yet still, in our worldly struggles, we often cry out, "Why, Lord? Why is this happening to me? Why is this cross so heavy?"

But that’s okay. God understands us completely. He knows we will doubt at times, but He also knows that through our baptism, He has filled us with the Holy Spirit and placed an indelible mark on our souls as His children. Through His son, the Church He established, and the Sacraments that Jesus instituted within the Church, God’s grace flows over us like a huge waterfall or a giant wave in the ocean, saturating us with His love and giving us the faith, strength, and courage to burst forth from our self-doubt and self-pity. We surrender ourselves to Jesus—body, mind, and soul—establishing a relationship with Him in which we allow Him to take us by the hand and lead us out of the struggles of life and into His all-powerful love.

"The heavens were opened, and the voice of the Father thundered: "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!""

In matters of faith, is there really anything else we need to know? Is there really anything else we need to do? No, there is not, because if we know that Jesus is the Son of God and listen to Him, no matter the trials we may go through, the enemy will have a hard time deceiving us.

Through the lens of the Holy Spirit, we can see the devil's ugliness, his pain, and recognize his lies. There’s no doubt he will still try to deceive us, but the closer we draw to Jesus, the easier it is for us to reject the enemy and say "Yes" to Jesus.

In January 2007, 16 years ago, my family and I were living through one of those major trials in life, and our faith was strongly tested. My 18-year-old son Justin, who had fought cancer since he was 8 years old, was nearing the end of his earthly life.

A few days before he passed, my wife and I were blessed to have a conversation with him about his faith, in which he confirmed for us his belief in God and that Jesus came to save us from our sins.

During this conversation, he told us in a very calm way that he was not afraid to die. Through the grace he received in the Sacraments, his faith was made strong so that even in his suffering, he was confident of God’s love for him.

Losing him was tough; it still is. This was an indescribably difficult time in our lives, but by God’s grace, we understood that the only way we would survive this tragedy was by surrendering ourselves to God’s love. While Justin’s death and the trauma our other children and family members suffered in losing him has caused lasting negative repercussions for some, my wife and I, by uniting our suffering to the sufferings of Christ, have seen God bring many miracles and blessings into our lives. His calling to me to become a deacon and share this homily with you today is just one of them.

St. André Bessette, whose memorial we celebrate this week, is also a person who suffered much throughout his life. He could have been bitter and rejected God, but by uniting his suffering to those of Christ and to the service of God and His Church, St. André inspired and healed millions of people. He was a living, walking, talking blessing for them.

St. André was orphaned at 12 years old and still couldn’t read and write at the age of 25. He entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross and served as a lay brother, doing primarily menial tasks. For 40 years, he was the porter at the door of the College Notre-Dame in Montreal. He also served as a sacristan, laundry worker, and messenger. His compassion for the sick and his devotion to St. Joseph drew large numbers of people to come and ask him to pray over them. Many were healed, and in every case, St. André humbly gave all the glory to God and the intercession of St. Joseph.

From a worldly view, St. André Bessette was a nobody. He was sickly, uneducated, and evidently not all that smart, but his love for God and St. Joseph drew people to him. Before his death at 92 years of age, he founded the Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal, though he never saw its completion.

St. André lived by God the Father’s command to listen to His beloved Son. The holiness with which he lived his life drew people to him, and there were a million people at his funeral. Now, each year over 2 million people visit the Oratory of St. Joseph. Thank you, Lord, for St. André Bessette—a shining example of the faith and simplicity of life that we are all called to live.

Amen.