The Living Faith

Many times I have been approached by my church-members as their spiritual mentor exposing their life’s burdens and drudgeries. Whenever I hear their problems, my inner spirit reminds me of the Scriptural passages about the groanings of a just man Job: Is not life on earth a drudgery, its days like those of a hireling? I have been assigned months of futility, and troubled nights have been counted off for me. When I lie down I say, “When shall I arise?” then the night drags on; I am filled with restlessness until the dawn… (Job 7: 1-7)

All humans born in this world-holy or unholy, weak or strong, prudent or imprudent, are undergoing such miseries and desolations. Suffering will always remain a scandal or at least a mystery. We can try to act as if it doesn't affect us, denying that it exists or running away from it, but there is no real escape from it for a Christian. It is written into our existence since Christ died on the cross. Though we will never understand it fully, we know in the light of God’s revelations that all human sufferings are meaningful and saving, if we would bear them as God expects us. In this regard, the important advice God offers us is to listen to his Son’s counseling words on this matter; and try to spend each and every day of our life as Jesus did in his life.

The best of Jesus’ exhortations on pulling through our life’s drudgeries is: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matt. 11: 28-30)

How did he manage all his burdensome experiences of life? We know well the nature of his ‘yoke’. He was literally a vagabond walking under the Palestinian hot sun; hilly and deserted locations; thickly populated villages and towns; through the dusty roads, and in the midst of many of his enemies; foxes had holes but he had no room to lay down and take rest; plus with no big bag of savings accounts; he and his disciples were always waiting for somebody to invite them for dinner.

In sum, Jesus was literally like one of us in undergoing life’s burdens worse than that of OT Job. However Jesus never lost his peace, serenity, dignity, hope and joy. He left with us a paradigm of how we should live day today life of pains and sufferings. In the light of the Scriptures we come to know that the daily chores of Jesus were marked by his three primary preoccupations:

First, he immersed himself in prayer with his heavenly Father. Mark writes, ‘rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed’. (Mk. 1: 35) There are references in the Gospels about Jesus praying throughout the night. In between those prayer hours, Jesus never missed before and after any event or scheduled programs of healing and doing good people. Thus Jesus started every activity from prayer and ends it in prayer.

Secondly, Jesus preferred to stay among the needy people throughout the day. In the Gospels we hear that when it was evening, after sunset, needy people brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. ((Mk. 1: 32-34) All kinds of people, especially those who were downtrodden and poor, reached him out and he extended his healing and loving hands to them with no discrimination whatsoever.

Following the Master’s footsteps, his disciples, like Paul, would untiringly take the burdens of others and alleviate their maladies. The great Apostle asserts: I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. (1 Cor. 9: 19-22) Followers of Christ understood well how to make the life’s burden light by holding one conviction of sharing the blessings of the Gospel they proclaim. (1 Cor. 9: 23)

We are at one time or another...miserable, depressed, negative, discouraged, desolate, and gloomy. But when we are closely related to Jesus, we hear him continuously that in the midst of burdens of life, we should go to him-not only to get his healing and wise counseling but also to learn from his life the right and efficacious way of maintaining our peace and joy in darkness. Plus we learn from Jesus that the brokenhearted people should not stop upholding this positive attitude in their sufferings but also they should encourage others in their suffering times as well. There are many among us, wounded in spirit, and waiting for us to heal them from their pains and sorrows and liberate them from the demons that plague them. These wounded people may be in our homes, neighborhoods, and even in our enemies’ camps. We must be ready to go beyond our likes and dislikes. That is the only way for a Christian to be a merrygoer and a jollygoodfellow even in pains, sufferings and perils.