Theme: Without death, life has no purpose, it just is. Without failure, we have no reason to learn, without suffering, there is no pleasure or purpose in life.
Scripture: Gen. 12:1-4; Ps. 32:4-5, 18-20, 22; 2 Tim. 1:8-10; Mt. 17:1-9
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was forbidden to practice his profession because of his Jewish identity in 1938. In Sept. 1942, Frankl and his wife and parents were transoported to the Theresienstandt Ghetto in the German occupied land of Bohemia and Moravia. His father died here due to pneumonia. Two years later he was separated from his wife. He worked as a slave labourer and for a brief period a physician until he was liberated in April 1945. When the war was finished, Frankl found out that only one person survived the war i.e. his sister, Stella. His mother and brother were killed in Auschwitz. His wife was killed. Frankl had suffered a lot. Those close to him had perished with the exception of his sister. Frankl did not give up. He picked up there and made the most of his life. He wrote a famous book, Man’s search for meaning. He mentions his tragic triad, three universasl facts about human existence. Frankl observed: There is no human being who may say that he has not failed, that he does not suffer, and that he will not die”. This looks very disheartening but Frankl believed this was where the meaning of life comes from. Without death, life has no purpose, it just is. Without failure, we have no reason to learn, without suffering, there is no pleasure or purpose in life. If the suffering and pain is there in our lives, then it is plan of God. God himself suffer to fulfil his plans to save us. So the sufferings which was seen as an enemy is transformed into means of salvation. This is the most powerful message that today’s liturgy gives us.
Today’s liturgy of the Word is reminding us that God has a plan for us even in our sufferings. It is important that we need to understand it in a right way. We are helped to understand it by three personalities in today’s liturgy who fulfilled God’s plans in their lives even in their sufferings. But they had to sacrifice their own plans. They had to suffer in their lives. In the first reading, Abraham had his first encounter with God. God called him to be father of the people of God. The calling of Abraham was a beginning of a new era. God made Abraham aware that He had plans for him. Abraham had to sacrifice number of things to fulfil the plans of God in his life. He had leave his land (country), his kinsman, his pagan culture, etc. He had to walk on the path decided by God to the place that he did not know. Abraham left everything; his security, surroundings and entered into new relationship with God. Abraham had to prove God that he was ready to sacrifice his son Isaac for him. To achieve God’s plans in his life, Abraham had to forgo his own plans. He had to accept the difficult ways.
St. Paul while writing to Timothy in his second letter tells us that God calls us according to His purpose and grace. Paul was lonely in the mission as he was imprisoned. All those who were around him had left him. The persecution was getting fierce. St. Paul solely relied on the power of God in the midst of suffering. He had realised God’s marvellous plans for him on the way to Damascus. The one who was persecuting Christians had now become the persecuted. The list of his persecution looks endless. He laboured, was given stripes, put into prison, faced death, beaten with rods for three times, received forty lashes according to Jewish punishment for five times, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, often journeyed in perils of waters, from robbers, own countrymen and gentiles (2 Cor. 11:13-33). He had realised the Gospel of Jesus had given him new life and immortality in moments of sufferings. Therefore, he invited his listeners to join him in suffering for the Gospel to fulfil the plan of God according his purpose and grace.
Jesus in the Gospel shows that He too was destined to complete the plan of God in his life. Today’s Gospel text depicts the scene of transfiguration. After the declaration of Jesus, the messiah by St. Peter; Jesus took His three disciples and led them to the mountain top by themselves. He was transfigured before them. The revelation at the scene of transfiguration by God that Jesus was the light of the world. Jesus was the king of the universe who reign for eternity where there will not be darkness. In the presence of Moses, the law giver and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets; all scriptures will come to fulfilment. Finally, God himself would reveal the Sonship of Jesus in the same words that He used them at the time of Baptism in the river Jordon. This was the foretaste of glory in heaven reserved for Jesus and his disciples. St. Peter being the head of the disciples was prompt to grab that glory forever. But Jesus made him understand that it had to be achieved through suffering and death. Jesus was far away from being a mighty king who would give them the political kingdom like the King David. God had different plans for Jesus. He would be rejected by the elders of the community, arrested, tried, condemned to death on the cross, tortured and eventually executed. This was the plan of God that Jesus fulfilled in His life.
God has also plans for us even though our lives are gripped with sufferings and pain. Sometimes we do not understand the plans of God. We fight with God why is He so cruel to us? Why things are not happening the way we want? Be patient and remember that there is time for everything. We need to understand that everything happens for a reason. Nothing occurs by chance. It is all God’s divine plan. Abraham, St. Paul and Jesus trusted in God and led themselves by God where He took them. They suffered in their lives to fulfil the plans of God. Today, we worship Jesus as Son of God who is unique and universal saviour of the world. Abraham is revered as the father of our faith. St. Paul is called the pillar of the Church and the most profound witness of Christ. Frankl Viktor is known as the best inspirational writer in the recent times. Each of them fulfilled plans of God in their sufferings. We are called to recognise the salvific value of suffering in our lives. For I believe God has the most beautiful plans for me.
