Homily: April 25, 2026, Saturday of the Third Week of Easter (Suffering)

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 “The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.”

We all experience some suffering in life. We don’t have to go looking for it. It will come looking for us.

And as Christians, suffering is part of our discipleship. Jesus said very clearly: “If you want to follow me, take up your cross daily and follow me.”

That means every day in the life of a Christian, we each have a cross and we are called not to despise or deny it, but to carry it with grace. Throughout the history of the Church, followers have carried their crosses in various ways.

The Desert Fathers believed in severe fasting and a very austere life. In the Middle Ages, some monks practiced harsh penances - even self-inflicting physical suffering.

Today, we hardly see such extreme practices. Life itself has enough hardship to offer.

Simply by being faithful to our Christian vocation – as a married couple, parents, priests, single person: lay or religious, we will encounter struggles. As we try to live life aligned to the Gospel teaching, which is most of the time opposed to the worldly way of life, it is already a struggle.

But St. Peter reminds us: God does not abandon us in suffering. He says: “He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you…”

Suffering is not the end of the story. God does marvelous works with it, and grace flows through it.

Personally, there have been times in my life when I could not understand the suffering that came my way. I could not see the meaning or purpose of it at that moment, and naturally I tried to avoid it and escape from it.

But on hindsight, I can now clearly see how the hand of God was working on me, molding and strengthening me through those moments of anguish and pain.

And I am sure, if you look back at your own life, and see your sufferings from the faith perspective, you will see how God was very present with you then.

The apostles and saints suffered joyfully for Christ, because they knew the more they suffered for Him, the closer they were to Him.

So let us look at our sufferings with the eyes of faith. Let us trust that God is in it with us. Let us believe that He is shaping us through it, that He will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish us.

Amen.


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