Day 25: “The Sufferings of the Present Time”

Day 25

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

HOLY WEEK

WEEK FOUR: WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL 2020

“The Sufferings of the Present Time”

Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

- Prayer for Wednesday of Holy Week, The Book of Common Prayer

Diagnosed at 59, she bore with a quiet grace the silent encroaching paralysis that would eventually render her speechless and immobile as Parkinson’s Disease claimed her life. In all those years until she died at 80, she never complained – not once, and when she died her central American caregivers in the nursing home where she had lived for too long, came into the room and wept, asking if they could bathe her, fix her hair and dress her. “Miss Maxine,” they said, “never ever complained.” She knew Jesus, and she was my mother.

The ‘sufferings of this present time’ are just that – of this present time, located in the context of chronos or marked time that by definition will pass. The universal symbol of suffering, Job, put it this way: “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” Job 19:25-27.  

Reflective question: Will you offer up to Jesus all that you have ever suffered or are suffering now, ‘the sufferings of the present time,’ and in the offering see how He can touch and transform all into something good for you? Romans 8:28 remains a trustworthy promise.

Reflective scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Reflective hymn: “What a Day That Will Be” – Jim Hill (1930-    )

There is coming a day when no heartaches shall come,

no more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye.

All is peace forevermore, on that happy, golden shore, what a day, glorious day, that will be.

What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see,

When I look upon His face - the one who saved me by His grace.

When He takes me by the hand and leads me thro’ the promised land,

What a day, glorious day, that will be.