When Doing Good Leads to Suffering

When doing what’s right leads to suffering, how should we respond? In this homily, Fr. Martin reflects on three essential movements of the heart: remembering Christ, who suffered despite His perfect goodness; recognizing our own limits and need for repentance; and receiving strength from Jesus, the source of perfect goodness. Through Scripture and real-life examples, this message offers both challenge and consolation for anyone striving to live faithfully in a world that doesn’t always reward what is good.

Transcript

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Good morning. Just one brief announcement before beginning with a homily. As I mentioned last week at Mass, this upcoming week, we are starting a new initiative here at St. Joseph, and we are starting a 24-hour monthly adoration, praying for an increase in vocations to priesthood, religious life, and married life. Now, I don't know if you know, but there's a great need for more priests today. Were you aware about that? There's a tremendous need for more priests today. In fact, you know, a lot of our priests are kind of aging out, and so uh they end up putting very inexperienced young guys in charge of parishes. So there's a tremendous need for more priests, religious, and married life as well. And so that's why we're starting this 24-hour period of adoration monthly for an increase in that vocation. So I invite you to pray on that. If the Lord might be calling you to take some time to pray for an increase in vocation. Starts this Thursday, and it's gonna go the whole day Thursday, throughout the night, Thursday night, and into Friday as well. Okay, so that's my announcement for today. Now, on to the theme of my homily. The theme of my homily today is when you suffer, when doing good leads to suffering. When doing good leads to suffering. Have you ever experienced that before? When you do good and it leads to suffering, when it costs you, how many people here have ever experienced that before? Okay, you try to do good and it costs you, it leads to suffering. I'm gonna give some examples. Maybe in your workplace you have to make an ethical decision and it costs you money, it costs you your relationships, maybe in your friendships you want to say and do the right thing, but there's peer pressure and people pushing you in the other way. Maybe in your family you want to lead your family in the right direction, but it seems like everybody is against you. Do you relate to any of those things? Doing the right thing, but it costs you, you suffer. Okay, if you have, the word of God today invites us to reflect on these things of what we can do when we suffer for doing good. Here are the three things that the word of God invites us to do. We can read this together. Number one, remember Christ who suffered for good. Recognize our limits in goodness and receive strength from perfect goodness. You see, I put the three R's there, so it's easy to remember. Remembering Christ who suffered for doing good, recognize our limits in goodness, because we're not perfect, are we? None of us are perfect. We have our limitations as well. And finally, to receive strength from perfect goodness. Let's begin with that first point. We're gonna look at one point from each scripture from the Word of God today, remembering Christ who suffered for good. Let's read our first uh scripture passage together. Let's read this. Beloved, if you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. If you suffer for doing good, the word of God says, remember somebody else who already did it before you. Who is that person? Look at that. That's why we have the image of the crucifix in the center of all of our churches to remember that he was perfect, wasn't he? No sin, no flaws, no faults. And yet the perfect good suffered for us out of love for us. And so if you experience suffering in your life or doing good, remember Jesus Christ who suffered for you. So that's the first R. Remember that Christ suffered for you. Okay, let's go to our second point now. Recognize our limits in goodness. Okay, I asked the question of the NMS. You know, none of us are perfect. Anybody here uh perfect? Could you raise your hand? Any perfect? You raise your hand there? Come to confession with me afterwards, okay? All right, anybody, okay, aside from you, I better lower my hand too, huh? Now we all have our faults, yes. Our flaws, our failings, our foibles. I love alliterations, I had to do that. We all have our weaknesses. We all have so even if we suffer for doing good, we've got to recognize I'm not perfect either, right? There are times when I have been the cause of suffering for other people. Have you ever been the cause of suffering for other people? Okay. If you're not sure, ask your spouse. Just uh okay. We have to recognize our own weakness as well. I'm not perfect, I have my faults. That's why, and this in the in this the next scripture I'm gonna show you, Peter says the following words to his listeners. Let's bring up this scripture passage. Let's read this together. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Repent, meaning turn away from sin. I'm not perfect. Now, at the beginning of Mass, we say the following words together. I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that who has greatly sinned? I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words and what I have done, what I failed to do through my fault, through my fault, through my most. We don't say this through his fault, through her fault, through their fault. We say through my fault. So our second point is to remember and recognize our the limits in our own goodness, that we have things that we have to turn away from. Me, myself, I'm the I'll be the first to raise my hand. There are things that I need to repent from, I need to be converted from, that I need to change. That's the second point. To remember, to recognize the limits in our own goodness. Okay, let's go to our third point. Receive strength from perfect goodness. Now, I we already established that nobody here is perfect, except for you. We have one perfect person who is perfect here in our congregation, just one. But now that we established that none of us are perfect, there is one. There is one who is perfect. Jesus. And that's where we can receive strength from, from perfect goodness. Now let's lead our read our final scripture passage from the gospel of John together. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy. I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. Let's repeat that last, those last words that Jesus just said there. And I want us to uh record this in our memory. Jesus says, I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus came that we might have life and might have it more abundantly. We would receive strength from perfect goodness. Uh we just sang our psalm today, which the music's been very beautiful, right? The music's been really amazing. Um we sang the psalm: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's where I receive strength from the good shepherd, from the perfect one. Uh in fact, um, could I put our musicians on the spot really quick? Just for the refrain of the psalm. Could we just sing that together one more time? So this is Psalm 23. Try the most famous psalm out of the whole Bible. Um, we just sing the refrain together, remembering that Jesus is the good shepherd. We shall not want without him. That's where we receive our strength. Let's just sing the refrain a couple times.

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The Lord is my ship. There is nothing I should be.

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Let's do it a cappella.

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There is nothing I should. There is nothing I should.

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That's where we receive strength from. We don't have to suffer alone. He's there with us. So today, if you find yourself hurting, struggling, suffering for doing good, the three things that we spoke about today. Remember that Christ suffered for us. He gave us the example. Second, recognize the limits in my own goodness, that I am not perfect. And the third, to remember that Jesus is our good shepherd. With him we shall not want. That's where we receive our strength. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.