“More than anything else, it is the problem of suffering which challenges faith and puts it to the test.” That sentence from St. Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae (paragraph 31) came to mind as I prayed with today’s first reading from Hebrews and as I tried to process events in the news this past week.
The sentence from Hebrews that centered my prayer and study is this one: “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
Questioning the Scripture
In Theological Reflection at St. Meinrad, Br. Zachary taught us to read a passage of Scripture, then ask it a question. Hebrews elicits lots of questions in me. The one today is: What is the logic of that sentence? It seems to say:
- Jesus (though he was God as well as man) had to LEARN obedience.
- He learned obedience by SUFFERING.
- The suffering made him PERFECT.
- THEN his death on the cross became the SOURCE of eternal salvation.
- FOR THOSE who obey him.
In my fascination and study of the Kerygma, I know Jesus’ Crucifixion and death were pivotal events. They are hard events for me. Why did Jesus have to suffer and die to save us? This sentence from Hebrews seems to have an answer to that question.
And that question with its answer seem phenomenally important to us all today.
Questioning Events
COVID ravages, creates profound suffering, and randomly kills all around us. There are so many now in our local hospital who are seriously ill with it, they are put together in a ward.
Is our American government secure? Never, until last week, did it ever enter my head that the United States would ever be ruled by anything other than democracy. I trust democracy stands for now—but I must also face that the polarities which divide us have taken a nasty turn. The therapist in me believes such nasty turns come from suffering endured, usually by children, so evil comes to dwell in wound, then is passed on to others through patterns of hardened, war-like hearts, acts of violence, and the sowing of seeds of evil into the hearts and lives of victims in the next generation.
Letting Scripture Answer
In Contrast, Hebrews 5: 8-9 gives us a WAY OUT of the inter-generational pattern of evil that began with Cain’s murder of Abel in Genesis 4.
This is how I am parsing it out.
“God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he has created all things that they might exist…God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.” (Wisdom 1:13-14, 2: 23-24) JP II quotes this in paragraph 7 of Evangelium. It is a foundation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The evil of death is not from God.
To overcome the evil of death, God came himself as Jesus, joining his Divine nature with our human nature. Our human nature is subject to suffering and death. His Divine nature is capable of overcoming death by resurrection to eternal life.
So, in the joining of human and divine natures, God accomplished the ability of us humans to NO LONGER BE LIMITED BY DEATH. He saved us from eternal death.
But why did suffering have to go with it? And how does obedience fit in?
Hebrew History and Worship
To understand some of that, we need to put ourselves in the minds of the Jewish Christians to whom Hebrews was written. Ancient worship—across religions and cultures—included the shedding of blood as a way to appease an offense against a god. Usually, it included the shedding of human blood. God, as he claimed the Hebrew people as his own, let Abraham know that he did not want human sacrifice to be a part of his relationship with humanity.
As 21st century Christians, it is hard for us to see slaughtering animals as an act of worship. But the readers of Hebrews saw it as normal. They needed to understand why it was no longer necessary.
In Christ, God Himself gave Himself over to the experience of offering up sacrifice. As priest, he offered it. As victim, he offered it. As man, he died. As God, he rose from the dead. That’s a lot–the whole meaning of our mass. The foundation of this sentence is that slaughtering animals has been replaced by what Jesus did on the cross and continues today in the mass.
Obedience
But what about suffering and obedience? How do you learn obedience from suffering? This is the part I am not sure I understand. This is an effort:
The word obey comes from the Latin words “ob” and “audire“. It means “to listen, to hear.” The word has come to mean “to do the action that is heard.” At its root, obedience is about listening, hearing. How does suffering teach us to listen? How does it teach us to do what is heard?
More important here: How did Christ’s suffering teach God and man to listen together, as one?
It is in that sense that this Scripture speaks to me with a new thought and question: Was a part of the power of the cross that God and humanity JOINED in suffering, became one in suffering, on the cross?
God suffered. Man suffered. Together at one time in the same person of Jesus. And was there a new perfection that was learned from that suffering?
Perfection
Perfection in the culture of Jesus’ day did not mean “free from mistakes” as it does today for us. Perfection meant that something was fully formed as it was meant to be. It was without blemish or mistake AND it was developed to a fullness of beauty and maturity.
So, following the logic: God and humanity, united in Jesus, let themselves be together in the suffering of sin–the human pain of evil imposed and endured and what must be God’s pain of seeing people choose to sin. In a fullness of being united, a new capacity for both God and humans was created that can change what had always been to what can be: the Kingdom of God.
For me, thinking of the crucifixion that way opens it up. It wasn’t just that Jesus suffered, but there was learned potential in the suffering that created a fullness, a perfection, that could lead to the new way of life which is Christianity.
Then the Last Part:
The last phrase changes from what God did to what now must be done: “eternal salvation for those who obey him.”
What does “obey him” mean? If today you read people speaking from polarities at either end of the spectrum, you find they have very clear ideas about what is right and wrong. They are right; the opposite polarity is wrong. But what does God say? It is God who saves and who must be obeyed.
As Catholics, we have both Scripture and Catechism to tell us clearly “this is right;” “this is wrong.” We have the 10 Commandments, the Beatitudes and all the Gospels, Catholic Social Teaching…and the hard work of saints, popes, and theologians for more than twenty centuries who have worked out many of the details.
But do we go to these sources to find out what is right and wrong—or do we go to the news and the internet? Do we seek to listen to God, or do we choose to listen to those who think like us?
In the End
Jesus learned obedience through suffering, was made perfect, and became the source of eternal salvation for those who OBEY HIM.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be careful to OBEY HIM. That means I must listen—to whatever all the suffering in our world is saying AND to God who speaks through Scripture and catechism about what is right and wrong.
Prayer
Lord, this Scripture is hard, but this Scripture seems very important. Help me listen, understand, and obey. Help us all. Lead us, guide us, Lord.
