In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Saint Paul's letter today touches probably upon the most sensitive area of our human existence. Because I said human, not Catholic, not Christian, human. Because this problem of suffering did not begin with the book of Job.
Of course, Job presents the problem but he doesn't give us an answer. It's called the Deus Ex Machina Solution to a Problem which is no solution. In other words, it's the old problem. Why do good people suffer? Why is there suffering in the world?
Why do I get afflicted? And right now, the names of a few of our parishioners come to mind, especially Patricia McNichols. And she's only one that I happen to know about. The only word for it, they get clobbered. How do you explain this?
What do you do about it? How do you accept it? How do you live with it? How do you keep on going? I tried to make sense out of nonsense because it looks like the most irrational thing.
You see how simple the argument is. If there is a God and if that God is all loving and all powerful and all benevolent, why do we have such a crazy world of in which we do not very often make the trouble that we suffer? Why? Why? Why?
Here's a family, little boy of 10, everything is normal, gets on his bike just before dinner to take a little ride and he's gone. Gone. He is gone, you know. Brentwood is gone. Can't even find the bicycle.
Why these things? Now you can say, well, it's all it's all a mess. Sure, there's a God, but I can't make any sense out of this. Grit and barren. Well, you could be a stoic, but don't call yourself a Christian.
Stoicism was a very respectable kind of philosophy, but it was a philosophy. It didn't come from God. Now, we have the answer here in Saint Paul. It's not an answer we would like. What we are promised by our Lord is the cross.
We that's what we've got to get straight. We hear so much of this Marxian utopianism. Remember, utopia means nowhere. Nowhere. That's why Thomas More called his book Utopia.
It doesn't exist. Old man Marx just repeated a lot of the guff and the moonlight, the moonshot. And but Paul has the answer. Our Lord has the answer, what we read this morning. He doesn't promise that we will get any kind of reward or solace or what the world calls peace in this world.
It's not in the books. He never said it was. He promised us the reverse. But he said, look, you're only living in this world for a while. Your reward is for eternity.
Be sensible. Now, with the thought I wanna leave with you good people is this. The older I see, I was brought up on this idea, the opus dei, the work of the Lord, what you do every day. It was hammered in almost literally hammered into us for eight years with the Christian brothers. We lived in the presence of God.
We took it for not for granted, but we were reminded of it. That whatever we're doing on the on playing basketball or in the classroom or smelling off awful stuff in the laboratory or something, that this was some way tied in with God and we lived in his presence. This was the great overriding atmosphere of the whole booming school. It was a Catholic school, a rare thing today, folks. Now the point is this, what do we do about this?
We do what we can and sometimes things work out very well. There's remember, life isn't all terrible. Skies are not always 11, but there are times when they are. There are times when God seems distant. And the second chapter of the of the Vatican's documents, dogmatic constitution on the church, chapter two is one of the most inspiring pieces in that whole book, two inches thick, where the writers present to the faithful what it means to belong to the royal priesthood of Christ.
You are a royal priesthood. They're talking about you, baptized people. How do you exercise that? Priesthood means sacrifice. How do you exercise it?
Through your living daily. Daily living. The things that hit you sharply, sickness, health, bereavement, disappointment, all the things that we are subject to. Whips and the scorns of outrageous fashion. We have to see them in the light of Jesus Christ.
And if your people want to be everybody wants to be a priest today. They are priests. Read this first letter of Saint Peter chapter two verse nine. You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart. They're talking about the baptized people, you.
The ministerial priest stands at the altar and offers the you of hubris. The congregation is all the congregated around him joining in the sacrifice and offering their lives such as those lives are. And lots of times you say, Lord, I don't want them. I don't like it, but you take it. You make sense out of it.
Then it'll make sense to you. And when the worst comes to the worst, it's some, all you can say, Lord, I belong to your mystical body. Take me. So, I'm not saying this is a doctrine of consolation, but it's a doctrine of hope. It's a doctrine of reason.
It's a doctrine which gives us a light at the end of the tunnel. It's a doctrine which is set solidly on the most solemn promises of Jesus Christ. I am with you all days, all days, the bright ones and the lead ones. The name of the father, son, the holy spirit. Amen.