CHRISTIAN SUFFERING AND THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
"Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12
We must understand God’s chief purpose for our lives is to be conformed to the image of Christ and He has determined in His plan to use an aspect of suffering for our spiritual development. If we are going to endure suffering and the trials of life, however, we must also understand and believe in the other purposes and reasons for suffering as they are related to the chief purpose.
Some sufferings are self-inflicted wounds, other sufferings come from “the world”. Making your life the pursuit of money, sex, power, pleasure, drugs, the occult, etc., like so many people spend their lives doing, is a surefire ticket to hell. Suffering is one way to realize that one day we will die, and to start preparing to meet God. The real reason that God allows suffering to come into the world is for the greater good of us all. We can't see this now, because we see through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12), but we will see it all in the afterlife. Jesus' suffering on the cross is the greatest example of horrible suffering bringing about the greater good for humanity. It is just like our suffering, although the magnitude of the suffering and the resultant benefit are different.
The Church is the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ shares in the sufferings of Christ Himself. As St. Paul says, we “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His Body, the Church”(Colossians 1:24). This means that man’s suffering is joined with the Paschal mystery. The suffering Christ endured is by no means incomplete or insufficient, but our participation in it, as His Body, is what must be completed. Christ leaves this redemptive suffering open so that it can be completed in us. Christ’s Body, the Church, lives this redemptive suffering throughout its history.
Paul interprets his own suffering as a means of ensuring that he be ever conscious of his own weakness, so that he remembers always that the power at work in him is from God and not himself and so that he is not deluded into relying on his own power ( 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 ; 4:7-12 ). Similarly, Paul says God sent him a "thorn in the flesh" to keep him from becoming conceited on account of his surpassingly great revelations (2 Corinthians 12:7).
What are you still suffering for as a Christ-bearer ?
To Be Continued…
Mary, Succor of Sufferers, Pray for us!!!
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