22nd Sunday in ordinary time. Today’s readings: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

There are some experiences in life of which nothing can be said, and before which we should rather remain silent. One such experience is the reality of suffering. Anything said about suffering risks being futile and is often unable to relieve anything of its burden.

On the Genealogy of Morals, by Friedreich Nietzsche

In his thought-provoking work, On the Genealogy of Morals, Friedreich Nietzsche articulated the thoughts of many an afflicted person when he wrote that the problem of suffering for humankind was not suffering in itself. The problem lay, according to the German existentialist philosopher, in the meaninglessness of suffering, which, for him, was “a curse that lay over humankind”.

This might be my little unpopular opinion, but Peter, the first among the apostles, might probably have agreed with Nietzsche. Just a few moments after making one of the boldest ever affirmations of faith in Jesus when he said he is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, earning him the appellative “rock”, Peter now turns against Jesus.

Jesus makes a dramatic announcement. He is to suffer at the hands of the religious elite, who will condemn him to death and he will rise from the dead on the third day.

But Peter cannot accept the reality of suffering. For him, as for Nietzsche, suffering has no meaning. Peter does not just express some prudent disapproval. We read that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. We can only imagine what a solemn rebuking from the fisherman-turned-primate must look like!

For Peter, there must be no place for suffering in life. Like an unsightly feature on one’s profile photo it must be Photoshopped altogether from life.

Peter’s words must have struck a chord with Jesus. We ought to suspect that Jesus must have found Peter’s words tempting, if not appealing, even if only for a moment, such that it is now Jesus who sternly rebukes Peter, even calling him “Satan”. Jesus now no longer calls Peter the rock but “skandalon”, literally a stone that causes one to stumble.

Contrary to popular belief, carrying one’s cross is not about being resigned and accepting blindly all hardships in life

Suffering has no meaning in and of itself. It finds its meaning only in the mystery of the cross, that is, in the mystery of love. Jesus explains to Peter that only those who are ready to give up their life will find it, while those who are bent on saving their life will lose it.

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl

This is the point made by the Austrian psychiatrist Victor Frankl in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. As a Holocaust survivor he was all too familiar with the experience of tremendous suffering. Through his own experience and that of the other inmates in Auschwitz concentration camp, he came to realise that “suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice”. What made Frankl and others in the concentration camp live for yet another day in the terrible conditions they were forced to live in was simply that they all lived not for themselves but for others.

A life lived with the sole aim of saving oneself can never find any meaning in suffering. All suffering ends up becoming a burden to be avoided at all costs. Life becomes nothing but a constant fleeing away from suffering, only to find it anew elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, carrying one’s cross is not about being resigned and accepting blindly all hardships in life. Rather, the cross is the surrendering of one’s life so that others may have life. It is only in doing so that life may really be lived fully.

This is the paradox of life that Jesus proposed throughout his life here on earth and which he lived on the cross. This involves a conversion of heart and complete trust in the Lord, but the efforts are not in vain.

carlo.calleja@um.edu.mt