Col 1:24 - 2:3 / Luke 6:6-11
No one would normally think of suffering as something pleasant or would welcome it.
Much less would anyone sincerely say that it makes him/her happy to suffer for another person.
To suffer for yourself might make sense in that it is either in reparation for your own wrong doing or maybe there is something to gain from it.
But to suffer for others and to suffer willingly and happily does sound strange and puzzling.
But when St. Paul told the Colossians in the 1st reading that it makes him happy to suffer for them, he states the reason for it.
In his suffering, he hoped to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of His body, the Church.
In this suffering, St. Paul said that he will struggle wearily on, helped only by the power of Christ driving him irresistibly.
Jesus came to heal us of our sicknesses and take away our infirmity. Yet He too had to suffer for it.
In the gospel, He healed the man with the withered hand, but it only made the scribes and Pharisees furious and that eventually got Him nailed to the cross.
We may think that we can't be that noble to suffer so that others can be healed. But like St. Paul, may the power of Christ drive us irresistibly so that we will undertake this suffering lovingly and joyfully.