Suffering

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 85 (84):9 The Lord speaks of peace to his people and his holy ones and to those who turn to him.

Collect Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Apocalypse 15:1-4; Psalm 97; Luke 21:12-19

Jesus said, But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life. (Luke 21:12-19)

Suffering François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan was born on 17 April 1928 in the imperial capital of Hue^', Vietnam. In the years to come, his uncle Ngô Dình Diem became South Vietnam’s first President, and another uncle was Archbishop Ngô Dình Thuc. In 1941, aged 13, Francois-Xavier joined An Ninh Minor Seminary and twelve years later was ordained a priest on June 11, 1953. So he was one of numerous priests who in some way heard the call to the priesthood as a boy, and whose path to the priesthood was direct. During these years of formation he must have impressed his superiors, for he was then sent to Rome for further studies, lasting six years. He then returned to serve as a faculty member and then rector of the Seminary of Nha Trang for the following eight years, as well as doing work as prison and hospital chaplain. He was appointed Bishop of Nha Trang (the diocese of the Seminary) on 13 April 1967 and received episcopal consecration on 4 June 1967 at Hue, his native city. I have seen it stated that in his eight years as bishop there the seminarians in the diocese more than tripled in number. In any case, on 24 April 1975, he was appointed by Pope Paul VI as Coadjutor Archbishop of Saigon. Paul VI had an intense interest in the Vietnam war, and knew the situation well. His appointment of Nguyen Van Thuan to Saigon indicates the esteem in which François-Xavier was held by the Pope himself. On 30 April, barely a week after his appointment, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, and François-Xavier, targeted for his faith as well as his family connection to Ngô Dình Diem, was imprisoned by the Communist Government of Vietnam for 13 years, 9 of them in solitary confinement. But he rose to the occasion, and continued to practise his faith and bear witness to Jesus, exemplifying by his life the words of Jesus Christ in our Gospel today. Finally released, for many years he was refused re-entry to his own country, and died in 2002, the well-known and saintly Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, highly esteemed by Pope John Paul II. His Cause for Canonization opened in 2007. His spirit flowered amid persecution for his faith.

There are thousands of ways to God, and there are thousands of paths along which divine Providence leads those who determine on being Christ’s disciples. While the paths may be very different, there is one thing in common to them all — suffering. John Henry Newman, illustrious convert of the nineteenth century suffered unremittingly for decades from incessant subterranean criticism, misunderstanding, calumny and gossip that quietly and at times loudly bore on him. He is now beatified, with canonization inevitable in due course. At times the persecution is even posthumous — such as that directed at Pope Pius XII, whose Cause for canonization is proceeding. Christ promises that the person who is truly his disciple will have much to suffer, and a good deal of the suffering will come from others. Even more telling is the fact that it is good men who will often be the source of that very suffering. Of course, the mere fact that a person is suffering does not indicate that he is a disciple of Jesus Christ, but if he is a disciple of Christ, suffering will be part of his course. Suffering is meritorious if it is borne in the spirit of Christ. To such a one, Christ says that your sufferings will become a testimony. Such was the case of Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan, and many other holy persons who could be cited. The word “martyr” is virtually a transliteration from the Greek, meaning a “witness.” In the event, the many minor and several major reversals experienced by many holy persons become themselves the means of witnessing to Jesus — and all is in the hand of God. It could be said that the iconic example of this is the early Church which suffered nearly three centuries of intermittent persecution, often savage and devastating. But the witness of the Church shone through and the triumph came. Our Lord promises divine aid: “make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” Suffering is now an opportunity.

Let us ponder the words of Jesus Christ on this aspect of discipleship and how bluntly our Lord predicts it. In hyperbolic fashion he drives his point home: “All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish.” Then comes the grand promise: “By standing firm you will gain life” (Luke 21:12-19). Let us learn from the saints, so varied in their persons, in their histories, in the upshot of their lives, how we must expect something of this if we are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. By your endurance you will gain life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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