OUR GOD IS A SYMPATHETIC GOD

Fr Luke A Veronis

How many of us have a friend who understands us? Maybe someone who can relate because they’ve gone through similar trials and challenges that we’ve faced in life. Or maybe it’s simply someone who doesn’t judge us because they love us so much and appreciate who we are even with all our weaknesses, shortcomings, and failures.

Such a friend is priceless. Truly one of the most valued treasures and blessings in life.

Well, this is how we comprehend the Lord Almighty. We believe in a God with whom we can relate. He understands us. He knows what we are experiencing. He, Himself, has endured temptations and challenges in His life. He has endured suffering and injustice. One of the most beautiful descriptions of our Savior, in all of Holy Scripture, which we hear in the epistle reading today: “We have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses and who in every way has been tempted as we are."

Our God is not a distant, indifferent God who doesn't understand our condition. Absolutely not! He has lived on this earth facing an evil tyrant who threatened his life as an infant. He and his family fled their homeland as refugees and became immigrants in the land of Egypt. He grew up as a poor villager from the ill-reputed village of Nazareth. He lived a simple life of a laborer without the comforts of the world. He endured ridicule and rejection, betrayal and terrible injustice by his own people. He suffered and died unjustly at a young age. This is why Saint Paul highlights the fundamental truth that we have a God who can sympathize with our condition and relate with our temptations. Actually, he endured much worse than most of us will ever experience in life.

Knowing that we have such a High Priest who is our Friend, we find inspiration to face our own challenges and temptations with hope. No matter what our circumstances and tests we confront, we find encouragement and live in hope because we remember who our Lord Jesus is. We run toward Him as we celebrate his life of the Cross while never forgetting His victory and triumph through the Resurrection.

“Through the Cross joy has come into the world,´ we say in a prayer every Sunday morning. It is because of His life of the Cross and His ultimate Resurrection that we can, as Saint Paul says, “With confidence draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

This is what we celebrate and highlight today, on the 3rd Sunday of our Great Lenten journey. We call it the Sunday of the Cross and we lift up the symbol that reflects the suffering of Jesus Christ. He lived a life of self-denial. He experienced unjust suffering. He met an untimely death. Yet, through this life of the Cross, “joy has come into the world.” Through our life of embracing the Cross, joy enters our lives. The Cross, even with its sacrificial nature that can lead to death, no longer represents a symbol of evil and fear but instead offers us a path of hope and life. We look beyond the difficulties and suffering of life, and even of a possible untimely death, as we focus on Christ’s ultimate victory, and our victory as well.

This past week I met with three people facing serious and grave challenges in life. A 62 year old priest who just discovered unexpectedly that he has cancer throughout his body and now it has progressed into his brain. He’s reflecting with deep gratitude on his most beautiful life, and yet, dearly wants to live longer. He doesn’t want to leave his wife and children behind. He dreams of seeing his grandchildren grow up and desires to continue the very vibrant and dynamic ministry he has.

Then I met a 59 year old who may be in the last weeks or months of his life with a terminal illness. This man admits that he has lived a checkered and difficult past with many regrets and mistakes. He told me that he needs to make peace and apologize to those he has deeply hurt in life, including those most close to him. He confessed to me that he isn’t a man of faith. I simply listened to his journey and tried to help him discover that there does exist a God who loves him and who wants to walk with him through this “valley of the shadow of death.”

Finally, I met with a 50 something year old who just had a sudden brush with death. The doctors told him that if he hadn’t come into the ER when he did and had emergency surgery, he wouldn’t be alive today. He realizes his life was spared by God. He’s filled with gratitude as he reflects on what this means for the new lease of life given to him. How will he live it? What will he do to hold on to his spirit of gratitude?

The lives of these three people have been shaken to the core. They have come face to face with death itself. For two of them, their future is quite uncertain. Yet, even in times like this, or precisely in times like this, the Good News they need to hear is that they have a God who can sympathize with their circumstances and they can be bold enough to approach the throne of grace and seek His mercy. They need to remember that they have a Savior who also cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” yet who didn’t despair.

This is the God we all have, who understands what we are suffering, who can relate to our fears and darkness, and who ultimately offers us hope and new life in the midst of our challenges. We are never alone and our God is a Present God!

As we process around the church at the end of the Divine Liturgy on this 3^rd Sunday of Lent and lift up the Cross of Jesus Christ, listen to what we will sing.  "We venerate Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection." Through the Cross we see that we have a God who understands our struggles and suffering. Yet, we never be overwhelmed by the crosses of life because “we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Our God is a Sympathetic God.