Fr. Michael Williams

St John in his gospel reveals to us that Jesus’ glory is manifested through His suffering and death on the cross. To the modern mind this is nonsense. How can someone’s suffering and death be their glory? Yet, for Jesus His whole life has been geared towards “this hour” of His crucifixion. Jesus tells Pontius Pilate that it was for this hour that He came into the world.

Our Lord explains His suffering and death imaginatively by comparing it to a wheat grain: “Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest”. A seed has to die before it produces a harvest. Jesus’ death on the cross is the means by which we are reconciled with God; His cross brings us eternal life. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed”.

This is not to say that Jesus somehow enjoyed His suffering, but He knew that it would lead to our salvation. Paradoxically, Jesus’ mortal death leads to our eternal life. Jesus’ suffering was very real. Today we hear Him say, “Now my soul is troubled”. In St Mark’s gospel too Jesus manifests His real agony when He prays: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet, ultimately Jesus knew that His death would lead to our life. “He learnt to obey through suffering; but having been made perfect , he became for all …the source of eternal salvation”. Once Jesus’ ordeal is complete His last words are, “It is finished”. Suffering is finished as He moves towards the incorruptible and glorious life of the Resurrection.

However, Jesus not only seals our salvation through His cross, He also teaches us how to suffer, because suffering is part of the mystery of the human condition, and we all experience it in one form or another. We have famous examples of people who suffered agony and pain; people like Pope John Paul II or Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Throughout their lives, and towards the end of their lives, they united themselves to the Lord and His sufferings. I see men and women of faith doing this all the time in the Royal hospital. People who prepare well for their final “hour” by living a life close to Jesus, despite the pain. When their hours come they were ready.

We must be ready too because we all will have a final “hour”. Our life is a preparation for this “hour”, just as it was for Our Lord. When we pray the ‘Hail Mary’ we pray: “Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death”. She was praying for Jesus at the hour of His death, so it’s good that we ask her to be with us at our own “hour”. We need to ask the angels and saints to be with us at that hour as well.

Especially, let us draw strength from Jesus and His “hour”, which is our hope, our salvation and our access into eternal life. Jesus Christ has conquered suffering by His death and Resurrection. “The hour of our death” is the most important hour of our lives, so let us prepare well for it by trusting in God’s great love for us, which is manifested to us by the Cross, which is the only key that opens the door to eternal life for us.