Jack Hardaway
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There is a story, long ago, about a Rabbi named Eliezer.
Eliezer declared that a person should repent the day before they die.
His disciples protested and said, “But a person can die any day.”
And Eliezer agreed and said, “Therefore, all of life should be one of repentance.”
Suffering and death show up in all the readings today, and how to respond.
God hears the cry of his peoples’ suffering and sends Moses.
Enduring testing in the First Corinthians lesson
People dying randomly and suddenly for no reason, and the fig tree being given one last chance in Luke.
And the psalm longs for God with a fainting thirst, barren and dry. Parched. Longing for God so much it hurts.
God and suffering. Suffering and God.
They are always found near each other.
Jesus is preparing for death.
He is telling us to prepare as well.
Everyday is a gift and a chance to open our hearts to the grace that set the stars in the sky and that has been poured out into our barren dry land like water for the thirsty.
Jesus is that water poured out that we may live, really live.
We never really get an explanation about why there is suffering and death. Jesus simply says God doesn’t cause it, or choose it. God hears the cry. God suffers on the cross. But we get no explanation.
All we get is the challenge to become alive, to open to that grace that is Jesus poured out, to know a different way to be alive.
To love. To care for those who suffer. God is there.
Every moment, repent, turn to God, cling to the God hears the cry of the suffering.