Originally shared as a reflection on the daily Mass readings for September 18, Dr. Augustine, Assistant Director of African American Affairs for the USCCB, offers a message that extends beyond that day’s Scripture to speak to navigating suffering, uncertainty and difficult seasons in everyday life.
Dr. Augustine opens by situating us in the difficult reality of today, stating, “When we look around our world and see war, violence, poverty, division, racism, displacement, loneliness, and suffering, we may wonder, where is God in all of this?”
When the weight of suffering becomes almost too much to endure, Dr. Augustine encourages us to turn to Scripture, where it serves as a constant reminder of hope: “God is not finished.”
Drawing first on 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, Dr. Augustine explains how St. Paul’s words teach us that Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection are proof that “the tomb was not the end. Sin did not win. Despair did not win.” For in the end, God has the final word.
As members of the mystical body of Christ, we are given the same hope in our suffering.
“Maybe you are watching this reflection carrying something no one else knows about. Maybe you are grieving a relationship, a dream, opportunity, sense of security, or perhaps even your own confidence in yourself,” said Dr. Augustine. “Today’s word reminds us, do not confuse a difficult chapter with a conclusion. God can still bring life out of places that look finished.”
He then shifts to the Gospel reading, Luke 8:1-3, which recounts Jesus journeying with his disciples and others from village to village, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.
In this Gospel reading, Dr. Augustine emphasizes how Luke spotlights not only the twelve disciples but also the women who accompanied and supported Jesus’ ministry—“Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, [and] Susanna.”
He encourages us to see in these women the transformation that happens when people encounter Jesus and then offer their lives to him.
Thus, not only does suffering offer an opportunity for our transformation and healing through Jesus, but Dr. Augustine also presents it as a model of discipleship, in which one serves and offers up their sacrifices alongside Jesus.
However, perhaps the most hopeful part of the Christian journey is not the work that God does to us, but the work God does through us.
Dr. Augustine concludes by calling us to see the readings as a reminder of our calling to incarnational evangelization—a type of evangelization in which the teachings of the Gospel are made visible through how we live our lives.
“We must bring hope into places of despair, reconciliation into places of division, justice into places where human dignity has been denied, compassion to places of suffering, [and] welcome into places where people have been excluded,” said Dr. Augustine.
Like Jesus in the Gospel, we are invited to be moving messengers of the good news, telling those on the margins and those who are suffering of the hope that can be found through Jesus’ conquering of death.
“So family, keep walking and serving, loving and believing, keep building the kingdom because whatever you are facing today, God is still at work, and your story is not over yet,” said Dr. Augustine.
