What is the point of suffering?

HOMILY29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (18 October 2009)World Mission SundayReadings: Is 53:10-11; Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22; Heb 4:14-16; Mk 10:35-45The brothers James and John’s vainglorious request provides a foil, a counterpoint, to the main message of the readings this Sunday. In the verses immediately prior to the request of Zebedee’s sons, the disciples heard Jesus predict His own suffering,