AUGUST 30, 2026 FATHER HENK VAN MEIJEL
It’s actually this passage right after the passage that Jesus asked, “Who am I?” and Peter proclaims that he’s the Son of God.
Jesus is proclaiming that he will have to suffer and be raised. And suffering? Oh, no, no, no, no suffering. We can’t have suffering.
And it’s interesting, his reaction, this reaction of St. Peter. While we also know that St. Peter also accepted his suffering and that he went, basically, gladly to Rome about 30 years later and accepted his martyrdom.
It’s a process of accepting. And so Peter, of course, he’s still thinking in very human terms. When Jesus was arrested, he was denying him.
But then, after the Resurrection, when they are touched by the Holy Spirit, when Jesus appears among them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” they get the courage. And a great courage they get.
We have the same in the first reading of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, the reluctant prophet. He could see what was happening. He could see that the community was going to be overrun. And also he could see how the big boys and girls took care of themselves and did not care about the poor. And he was proclaiming doom.
But in our first reading too, he’s saying, “But I don’t want it, I don’t want it. But I can’t stop. I can’t stop talking.” Or can’t stop proclaiming.
And this is the Spirit of God. That is the Holy Spirit driving someone. But before that happens, we have to give our life to God.
And it all starts in the second reading of Romans. Not to conform yourself to this age. It’s interesting how this was written 2,000 years ago by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans, but how it still applies today.
Not to conform yourself to the world as it is. And we can have all the goodies in the world. We can have multi-million dollar houses. We can have, I don’t know, $20,000 cruises and holidays, and who knows what. But we cannot buy our life. We cannot buy our life.
And we have to give our life to God. And the more we can give our life to God, the more also the Holy Spirit will enter and God will enter and give us that courage to move forward, not to be afraid.
And it’s so important in our spiritual development. It just doesn’t happen all of a sudden, but it starts by giving our life to God, to be different, to be countercultural. And in that, God will give us the courage.
We have so many saints who have shown us the way. And some saints, they literally have accepted their suffering. And how they literally suffered with Jesus on the cross.
This is so important for us, and especially as we get older, to accept our suffering. We cannot buy a minute more in life. But to accept our suffering and to use our suffering as a prayer, to offer it up with our suffering as a prayer for the world, for conversions, for all those people who suffer in the world in wars and natural disasters and so on.
To offer it up is as much of an offering as making a monetary offering.
But it’s a process. And that also will move us away from ourselves because it’s so easy to look at ourselves. It’s so easy to look at myself and say, “Oh, why does this have to happen to me? I don’t feel very well today,” or something.
And it’s to say, and to go around and say, “Oh, I don’t feel very well,” and people say, “Yeah, I’m sorry to hear that.” And of course people are polite because they don’t care if you feel well or not.
But it is a process. And the more we can do it, then really things start to happen.
We have quite a few examples in the saints.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who died in 1897 at the age of 24, suffered from tuberculosis for two years, spitting up blood. And yet she was joyful. She was joyful. She accepted her suffering and gave it to God. “God, use my suffering for the good of the world.”
Another one I’m thinking of is Alexandrina da Costa, who died in 1955. Not that well known like Thérèse of Lisieux. But her stepfather tried to molest her at age 14. To escape, she jumped out of a third-floor window and was paralyzed for the rest of her life.
And she was not too far away from Fatima, so people went to Fatima, got holy water and so on, and blessed her and prayed for her.
But she came to the point that one day, when many people had gone to Fatima, she really received that call to suffer with Christ. And she suffered with Christ for about 30 years, literally suffering. And on Fridays, living the crucifixion of Christ. Quite an observation for people to see how she literally suffered on the cross every Friday.
And in 1942, it went so far that she actually experienced her death. Although she did not physically die, she experienced her death. Indescribable, giving her life to God.
And she lived for another 13 years just on one host a day. One Eucharist a day.
And an incredible sign to us to accept our suffering, not to be afraid of our suffering. Very few people choose to suffer for Christ and with Christ. But suffering will come each our way.
And so it’s just to gently accept our suffering and not to be afraid, and asking God to bring good out of it all.
Amen.
