The broadcast rights for one of my favorite televised sports were sold to a different television channel this season.  The television coverage by the new broadcaster is very similar to the coverage by the previous broadcaster, but the new broadcaster’s announcers don’t quite measure up to the previous standards. 

One of the new broadcaster’s announcers dresses in garments that look like the parachutes used for large cargo deliveries dropped into areas affected by natural disasters.  Another announcer has a haircut that protrudes from his forehead like an old-fashioned bottle opener.  A third announcer looks like a little child wearing his father’s oversized t-shirt and sweatpants. 

Many questions arise about the clownlike appearance of those television announcers.  The principal question in my mind is how those television announcers manage consistently to find hotel rooms around the world that have no mirrors because even a single, small mirror would have a beneficial effect on their appearance. 

Today’s second reading says that suffering can serve as a metaphorical mirror for the lives of Jesus’ disciples.  The first letter of Peter is an extended instruction about baptism.  The letter describes the hope that baptism imparts to believers; because of Jesus’ resurrection, his followers can be assured of victory over sin and death.   

The letter offers some words of caution, as well.  The newly baptized are warned not to expect an easy carefree life because faithfulness to God requires one to endure suffering with the same graciousness that one receives blessing.  The strength to remain faithful and virtuous regardless of one’s circumstances is the result of the baptismal vocation to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God’s own,” as last Sunday’s second reading proclaimed. (1 Pt 2:9) 

This Sunday’s selection from the letter addresses the inevitable experience of suffering.  The author wrote, “it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.” (1 Pt 3:17)  The author doesn’t suggest that God intends us to suffer.(*)  Rather, he meant that suffering, and even persecution, are unavoidable in this world.  When these unavoidable burdens occur, the Faith into which we are baptized allows us to redeem our suffering by joining it to the suffering Jesus experienced on the Cross. 

The author’s advice that “it’s better to suffer for doing good rather than for doing evil,” is commonsensical; it is also an accurate reflection of Jesus’ teaching not to repay evil with evil. (Lk 6:28)  As I mentioned above, the experience of remaining innocent when persecuted serves as a metaphorical mirror, as well. 

Suffering can result from two very different causes.  The suffering that results from evil intent (persecution, for example) is moral evil that is fully the responsibility of the persecutor(s).  This suffering is injustice in its truest sense because it is inflicted willingly on a victim.  All suffering is an affront to human dignity, but intentional evil is unnecessary as it is the free choice of an evil doer.  By contrast, the suffering that is caused by the limitations of the world (death, for instance) is no one’s fault; physical evil is not the result of anyone’s conscious choice. 

While very different from one another, physical evil and moral evil are both undeserved and unjust.  They are also equally likely to give rise to even greater moral evil.  When people lash out in anger, it is rarely based on the distinction between suffering that is unavoidable in the world and suffering that is inflicted by another.  Regardless of the cause of one’s suffering, it is morally the better choice always to avoid adding to the moral evil in the world. 

Suffering, then, is a mirror that reflects our own nature as well as the nature of the cause of our suffering.  When one remains morally blameless in suffering, as Jesus did, one is known as a virtuous person.  On the other hand, to inflict moral evil as a response to experiencing moral evil reveals a person to be no less morally evil than those who are willingly prejudiced, violent, and malicious. 

Speaking to the newly baptized, the author of the first letter of Peter describes the recognizable characteristics of the intended effects of baptism.  One of those effects is that Jesus’ disciples should avoid suffering when possible because suffering is degrading.  When it’s not possible to avoid suffering, faithful disciples should avoid degrading themselves through retaliation. 

Suffering can serve as a mirror that reflects both innocence and guilt.  The innocent are those who do not return evil for evil. 

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(*)  The conditional clause “if that be the will of God” has a meaning identical to other conditional usages in casual conversation.  For example, the adage, “God willing, and if the creek doesn’t rise” is a statement about the unpredictability of future events; it doesn’t imply capriciousness or malevolence on the part of God.  The author of the first letter of Peter addressed a congregation that was experiencing religious persecution.  The author wasn’t suggesting that God was the cause of persecution.  Rather, the author was employing the common teleological argument that, as God sustains all things in existence, this random event of persecution is the merely result of the ongoing existence of the world.  Unfortunately, the teleological argument sounds too much like a causal argument in that it makes evil appear to be the result of the Divine will.  It is more appropriate, then, to understand the author’s conditional statement as meaning “if such a thing should happen to you.”