April 30, 2016 Saturday, 5th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 16:1–10 Gospel: Jn15:18–21
Jesus said to his disciples, “If the world hates you, remember that the world hated me before you. This would not be so if you belonged to the world, because the world loves its own. But you are not of the world since I have chosen you from the world; because of this the world hates you.“Remember what I told you: the servant is not greater than his master; if they persecuted me, they will persecute you, too.
Have they kept my teaching? Will they then keep yours? All this they will do to you for the sake of my name because they do not know the One who sent me.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
In the light of the merits of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, sufferings are salvific. Below are the five meritorious benefits we can draw from sufferings. They are arranged to form the word ‘blest’.
God uses sufferings to BUILD us up. “We can rejoice when we run into problems… they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady” (Romans 5:3-4).
God uses sufferings to LEAD us. Sometimes God must light a fire under us to get us moving. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).God uses sufferings to EXAMINE our worth. People are like tea bags… if you want to know what’s inside them, just drop them into hot water!
“When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience” (James 1:2-3).
God uses sufferings to SPARE us. Someone was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment made him suffer. But it bailed him out from conviction of a crime a year later when management’s actions were eventually discovered. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Genesis 50:20).God uses sufferings to TEACH us. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It’s likely that as a child our parents told us not to touch a hot stove. But we probably learned by being burned. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:72).A caveat is in order: Sufferings that stem from our own vices are not meritorious. The better thing to do is to stop the vice and live according to God’s Will. —Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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