Finding Christ in Suffering: Trusting God’s Hidden Work

Pearl: We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. (2 Corinthians 4:5)

This Scripture from our first reading is very fitting for the saint we remember today. Today is the Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great. He served as Pope from 590 to 604 and is a Doctor of the Church. He was also the first Monk to become Pope. Born around the year 540 in Rome to a noble family, he was educated in grammar, rhetoric, and law, and was devoted to God from his youth.

Saint Gregory profoundly shaped medieval Christianity and the Catholic Church’s doctrine, organization, and discipline, earning the title "Father of medieval Catholicism.” Saint Gregory strongly upheld the teaching that the Bishop of Rome had authority over the whole Church, and he rejected the idea (held by some at the time) that only the Bishop of Rome was a true bishop, recognizing the genuine episcopal authority of all bishops. His legacy is foundational for understanding the papacy and the governance of the Church. Although he was well-educated, he was not a man of profound learning. He was not a philosopher, nor even a theologian in the true sense of the word. He was a trained Roman lawyer, an administrator, a monk, a missionary, a preacher, and above all, a physician of souls and a leader of men.

It is hard for us to understand that in the early Church, there were some leaders who challenged what we would consider today as basic dogmas and doctrines of the faith, like the primacy of the Bishop of Rome. Thank God, Saint Gregory the Great stood against this and upheld and defended the great truth that as the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome has authority over all the Church worldwide, and that all Bishops (as the successors to the Apostles) have authority over each of their individual area or diocese (as we would call it), with the Pope as their superior and leader of the worldwide Church.

In our Gospel today, we see an example of how even among the Apostles, arguments broke out about who should be regarded as the greatest. Jesus gives them a lesson in humility, saying, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, but among you it shall not be so.” He goes on to tell them that the greatest among them must be the servant of all, just as He was, not lording their authority over others.

In our human nature, we often want to be in control. We want to be the boss. But Jesus reminds us that as Christians, we should be like Him, who came to serve and not to be served. St. Paul builds on this message when he says, “We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.”

Even today, we struggle with wanting things our way instead of the ways of God and His Church. The teachings of our faith often seem complicated to us, and we do not fully understand them right away. It takes study, prayer, and discernment to understand our faith and know how God wants us to live our faith, but it also takes surrender—surrendering our will, our wants, and our desires to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

I was speaking to someone the other day who was struggling with why God allowed suffering. He had a loved one who had suffered for several years before passing away. He wasn’t mad at God, but it really hurt him to see his loved one suffer. He said, “I know it’s wrong, but sometimes I think it should be legal to have assisted suicide in certain cases.”

But the thing we have to understand is that God is in control, not us, and that He has a plan that is infinitely better than ours. Even through the worst suffering, God is working to bring His children closer to Him. Even those who may languish in nursing homes or hospitals for years have worth, and God still works through them. They are no less than others in the eyes of God. They are not worthy of being just thrown away. In fact, the humble prayers offered by those who are in the midst of suffering are very pleasing to God, more powerful than we can imagine, and often bring the person who is suffering closer to God than they have ever been.

In life (especially in those times we do not understand or are not able to see how God is working), we have to believe that He is working. He is working to save souls, both ours and others, even when His work is totally hidden to us. As Christians, we must live our faith at all times, even when we are suffering. These difficult times (when our relationship with Jesus, our Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and Brother is put to the greatest test) are the times we have the greatest opportunity to truly “not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus.”

Amen!