October 5, 2025; 2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14; 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is no such thing as a life without tears. No matter how blessed we may be, no matter how many people love us, there are aspects of our life that trouble us and frighten us. It might be a problem in our family, a health concern. It might be our general dismay at the increasing level of violence and hatred in our society. All of us have parts of life that concern us and cause us pain.
What can our faith say about coping with such difficulty? The author of the second letter of Timothy provides an avenue for us to follow in today’s second reading. He advises us to “bear your share of hardship for the gospel.” What this writer is trying to say is that we have the choice to give purpose to our hardships. We can direct them for the sake of the gospel. We can use our suffering to further the work of God. In traditional religious language we would say we can take up our pain and offer it to God to be used for God’s own good purposes.
Now, it is important to note that offering up our pain should not be the first response to hardship. The first response to hardship is to try to avoid or eliminate the pain or suffering. The first response to a problem in our family is to try to resolve the problem. The first response to a health concern is to treat it. The first response to the growing violence in our country is to discern the underlying causes of ignorance and anger that fuel such violence. But once we have done all that we can to eliminate the hardship, and the hardship still remains, then we can offer up our suffering to be used for the sake of the Gospel.
When we’ve tried over and over again to facilitate communication and forgiveness within our family, and yet there are still people we love who will not talk to one another, we can take that disappointment and sadness and offer it up to God to be used to help every family who is in trouble. When, after months of therapy, we wake up in the morning and the pain in our lower back still hinders our ability to walk, we can take that pain and offer it to God for the sake of others. Once we have become active and involved in promoting ways of peace within our society, and still the level of violence continues to grow, we can take that disappointment and fear and offer it to God, asking God to change human hearts.
How God will use the pain we offer is not for us to say. But it is an act of faith to place our suffering in the hands of someone who loves us. And it also provides a purpose for the pain we must endure. There is no such thing as a life without tears. That is why it is valuable to offer our tears to God, asking God to use them to make good things grow.