{"id":13700,"date":"2022-04-15T15:00:52","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T14:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turski.blog\/?p=13700"},"modified":"2022-04-15T15:00:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T14:00:52","slug":"good-friday-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=13700","title":{"rendered":"Good Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which country is the most prosperous and the happiest, the envy of the rest of the world? Have a guess\u2026 It\u2019s North Korea, now closely followed by Russia – if you believe their respective, state-controlled mass media. The official propaganda presents the country\u2019s officialdom as competent, efficient and effective, leading the country from strength to strength, providing everything that its happy citizens need to fulfil their dreams and desires. Unlike those happy countries, the western mass media is full of bad news, crime, corruption\u2026 You name it. It\u2019s like a never-ending misery parade that is infuriating, irritating or hopeless. Our western-style life is full of suffering and pain, inequality and abuse of power in various shapes and forms. However, we don\u2019t hear stories about migrants storming the shores or borders trying to get to North Korea, Russia, Iran or any other major dictatorship. Or when they do, as in Belarus a few months ago, it\u2019s only a staging post on the way to those miserable and decadent countries of the so-called West. I grew up in a dictatorship like Russia and I know first-hand how the official propaganda covers up omnipresent misery and poverty, and how it tries to create an alternative reality. If such countries experience hardship or troubles, it\u2019s never a result of internal mismanagement, corruption or incompetence; it\u2019s always caused by \u201cenemies\u201d or hostile countries. Suffering and pain are effectively banned and banished in dictatorial political systems as they undermine the ruling elites. Such an attitude paradoxically leads to widespread and deeper suffering and pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no such thing as a pain-free society. There are only two places where there\u2019s no pain or suffering: the graveyard and heaven (if you believe in the latter). Everywhere else pain and suffering are part and parcel of life. It takes different forms, shapes, intensities and so on. It can affect whole nations or an individual – and everyone in between. Suffering might stem from natural causes; but a substantial chunk, if not most, is inflicted by other people, directly or indirectly; from a global scale all the way down to the domestic one. It might seem like I\u2019m speaking from my high horse, but suffering isn\u2019t the real challenge; what we do with it is the challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without diminishing any personal challenges that many people in this country face on a daily basis, we are a prosperous and successful nation as are most of our European neighbours and other countries we collectively call the West. We have achieved this level of prosperity not because we have permanently eradicated suffering and pain. We obviously haven\u2019t. But we have and continue to face our challenges head-on. We can moan, whine and complain about our hardships, troubles, difficulties and problems as much as we like. We can openly challenge, criticize and blame people in power for their incompetence, lack of compassion, shortage of ideas and so on. Generally speaking, because we can and we do debate our collective and individual miseries, solutions can be found, ineptitude can be replaced by competence, causes of failures can be established and consequently lessons learned, the guilty can be charged and sentenced. Overall, an open society is capable of dealing with difficulties much more efficiently and effectively because it tends to address the roots of the problem rather than the symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might think that I\u2019ve gone too political in this sermon. However, the same mechanism of coping and dealing with adversities that we can easily see on a global scale applies to our individual ways and attitudes. I said earlier that \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as a pain-free society\u201d. Similarly, no one is ever completely free of suffering. For some it\u2019s a chronic condition, others might face various challenges at different moments in their lives. For some, it can be a string of minor but frequent troubles that are no less life-sapping than big, life-changing disasters. To use biblical language and symbolism, everyone carries their own cross. They differ in sizes and shapes but are essentially the same. Jesus\u2019 call to his followers to <\/span>\u201ctake up their cross and follow [Him]\u201d (Mark 8:34)<\/span><\/i> isn\u2019t about an optional choice because there\u2019s no room for manoeuvre. The existence of a cross in my life is a fact. Jesus\u2019 call is about embracing your cross in a positive way. The choice is between being dragged by your cross or dragging your cross. The latter gives you control over your life – even if it’s limited – while the former means being at the mercy of events. Today\u2019s biblical readings give us insight into such a positive acceptance of the inevitable; foretold by the prophet Isaiah and fulfilled by Jesus during his passion. His embrace of his suffering and subsequent death didn\u2019t change the outcome but He made it count. Instead of a meaningless slaughter Jesus made it a meaningful, redemptive sacrifice. Another crucial lesson of the passion is that suffering is more bearable when it\u2019s shared. We should always strive to alleviate pain but sometimes it\u2019s impossible to achieve that. Nevertheless, small acts of kindness, support and assistance can ease the pain. <\/span>\u201cBear one another\u2019s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.\u201d (Galatians 6:2)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In a moment we will venerate the cross. It\u2019s a symbol of our appreciation for Jesus\u2019 ultimate sacrifice. But it can be something more: the symbol of my acceptance of my cross in connection with His. If you have your palm cross, you can lay it down at the foot of the cross as a symbol of offering your life, your suffering, for the salvation of the world. <\/span>\u201cThose who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.\u201d (Mark 8:35)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Image by Sorin Lazar Photography<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which country is the most prosperous and the happiest, the envy of the rest of the world? Have a guess\u2026 It\u2019s North Korea, now closely followed by Russia – if you believe their respective, state-controlled mass media. The official propaganda presents the country\u2019s officialdom as competent, efficient and effective, leading the country from strength to strength, providing everything that its happy citizens need to fulfil their dreams and desires. Unlike those happy countries, the western mass media is full of bad news, crime, corruption\u2026 You name it. It\u2019s like a never-ending misery parade that is infuriating, irritating or hopeless. Our western-style life is full of suffering and pain, inequality and abuse of power in various shapes and forms. However, we don\u2019t hear stories about migrants storming the shores or borders trying to get to North Korea, Russia, Iran or any other major dictatorship. Or when they do, as in Belarus a few months ago, it\u2019s only a staging post on the way to those miserable and decadent countries of the so-called West. I grew up in a dictatorship like Russia and I know first-hand how the official propaganda covers up omnipresent misery and poverty, and how it tries to create an alternative reality. If such countries experience hardship or troubles, it\u2019s never a result of internal mismanagement, corruption or incompetence; it\u2019s always caused by \u201cenemies\u201d or hostile countries. Suffering and pain are effectively banned and banished in dictatorial political systems as they undermine the ruling elites. Such an attitude paradoxically leads to widespread and deeper suffering and pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}