My classmates and I in 8th grade had a joke in religion class that if you didn’t know the answer to a question Sister Juliana was asking, answering “Jesus” was usually right. I have been a teacher of the Catholic Faith for over 22 years now. Little did I know back in 8th grade how right my classmates and I were.
While Jesus is sometimes the answer to a question a student may find on their religion test, Jesus is always the answer to life’s big and small problems.
If you are late for an appointment, lost your keys or if you’re not sure how to explain a little mistake you made to your spouse, Jesus is there. Jesus really cares about every aspect of our lives, even the little things. He wants you to have the best life you can possibly have. Just like a parent, He may allow us to learn some things the hard way, but He is always there for us to call on. He makes every single situation better. Jesus is the answer… if we just ask. And even when we mess it up because we didn’t trust Him, Jesus will forgive us and help us make things better.
Sometimes our problems are difficult… very difficult. Financial problems, anxiety, fights with loved ones, illness and death are all things everyone deals with at one time or another. Jesus is the answer then too. He will be there with us in all our sufferings if we let Him. God allows suffering only if it is for our betterment. So, we must trust in Jesus, do as He has commanded us and love as He did.
What about when we don’t know why suffering happens? This is when Jesus asks us to trust Him the most… just like a parent tells their young child to trust them when the child doesn’t understand why. Through it all Jesus teaches us what is most important – loving God and our neighbor. Just like an athlete must suffer to become stronger, faster and better, the sufferings we go through in life, when endured with love, unite us closer to Jesus and allow Him to transform us into saints.
Jesus wants us to know that no matter what, this life’s sufferings do not compare to the joys of Heaven. That is why He inspired St. Paul to write the following:
“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us… For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” -2 Corinthians 4:17-18
Sacred Thinking by Mike Denz 