Eighteenth Advent Reading

'Each day has enough trouble of its own," Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. He meant it. He was realistic enough to recognize that this world is too often a place of suffering, for now still in the grasp of the World Hater, the prince of this world.

A day will come when sorrow will be no more and death itself be destroyed, but until then there will always be some poorer than others, some bereaved mistreated, abused. We must do all we can to protect and to heal, but even the miracles we see are only signs of the Kingdom. That Kingdom is at the same time 'already' and 'not yet.' We are not exempt from trouble, injustice, violence and suffering, just because we are believers. He will allow some of these things to touch us also, even though it is not HIm that visits them upon us.

Jesus, who understood that it was necessary for Him to suffer, still questioned, Was there no other way? Job wondered what was going on and in this life was never told what had happened in the courts of heaven over his story of trials. We know that no test is beyond what we can endure, but why this random, faceless violence unleashed at times in our society? The cross begins with an unanswered 'Why?' - and Christ also shouldered the cross.

Celtic Daily Prayer
From the Northumbria Community