How We View Adversity

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Some try to avoid it at all cost. Others try to minimize it. Still others deny it. But some seem to accept adversity with courage and grace. What’s their secret?

I don’t know, but I’m working on it.

In a recent weekend liturgy, Mark’s gospel told the story of James and John, brothers and, like Peter, former Sea of Galilee fishermen who became ardent followers of Jesus.

When Jesus and his disciples, including the two brothers, were on the road to Jerusalem, according to Mark’s gospel, Jesus predicted that he would be arrested and executed there. That should have been enough to burst the disciples’ bubble about their leader establishing an earthly kingdom.

But James and John either misunderstood or weren’t paying attention because they came forward and asked Jesus, “Grant us to sit, one at your right and one on your left, in your glory.” Were they referring to some future “glory” in the afterlife or, ignoring his prediction about arrest and execution, about a more immediate future in which Jesus would lead a successful revolt against the Roman occupiers?

How Mark Arranged It?

It’s possible, of course, that Jesus’ prediction of arrest and execution wasn’t immediately followed by the request by James and John but simply how Mark arranged the story. Curiously, the same story in Mathew’s gospel has the mother of James and John asking this favor.

This gospel story, by the way, is among those that tell me the gospels aren’t mere public relations pieces by early Christians, as some critics contend. This passage does nothing to enhance the reputation of these two prominent leaders of the early Christian church. The scene is, in fact, embarrassing.

In any case, Jesus responds to the brothers’ request with a question that should give all of us pause. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” He was, of course, referring to his passion and death. James was put to death by Herod Agrippa about the year 44, according to the Acts of the Apostles. John may have escaped martyrdom but he undoubtedly underwent hardship in trying to advance the Jesus cause after Jesus’ horrible death.

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So in his response to the brothers, Jesus could have been referring to suffering in general, that every human being will undergo suffering and adversity and that what matters is how we respond.

That’s my interpretation and as I age, the inevitability of adversity and suffering become more focused. Even though I consider myself fortunate to have good health, there’s always something going wrong. Now, those things are relatively unimportant but more serious health problems are sure to come.

Will I be able to handle them? Though doubt is never far away, I have confidence that my faith will see me through.

But faith isn’t valuable only to old people. Young people also have adversity and suffering, some in the physical sense and many others in the challenges that life inevitably brings. Those include the emotional and financial problems that typically assault families, the worry that comes with raising a family, and simply dealing with life. As with the elderly, there’s always something going wrong.

A Very Powerful One

In last week’s blog, I quoted Francis Collins, the retiring head of the National Institutes of Health. As a medical student and non-believer, he was struck by the strong faith of many of the patients whom he met. “If faith was a psychological crutch,” he concluded, “it must be a very powerful one.”

And that, it seems to me, is one of the answers to the question posed by people who ask, “What good is faith?” In my view, it’s not a crutch. Instead, faith is a way of knowing, in this case, knowing the maker of life. And to know God is to love him, and to have confidence in God’s love for us.

That makes it possible to “drink the cup that he drank,” knowing that ultimately, God is in charge. For believers, that's what allows a response of courage and grace.