2 Cor 1:1-7 / Matthew 5:1-12
Monday is not usually a day that we look forward to going to work nor are we that productive.
Mondays can be called "Moody Monday" because we have to drag ourselves out of the weekend and get into the working gear.
And Mondays can be all the more moody and gloomy when we get the work of others thrown on our desk and we grumble and growl at being arrowed for having to do somebody else's work.
And since we can't get out of it, we give in and succumb to this "No choice" situation.
But is it really that we have no choice? Do we see this kind of "suffering" as no choice and with no options out?
But the 1st reading gives us two perspectives of this kind of "suffering". One is that God will comfort us in all our sorrows (and suffering) so that we can offer others, in their sorrow, the consolation that we have received from God.
The other is that when we are "made" to suffer, then it is for the consolation and the salvation of others.
So suffering and sorrow have a redemptive value and it can be a source of consolation.
In that sense it can be said to be a blessing. And when we reflect on the Beatitudes of the gospel passage, that is also what it is saying - that in sorrow and suffering, there can blessings.
So let us ask the Lord to bless our Mondays and also to bless everyday so that in when we face suffering and sorrow, we will also experience blessings