Redemptive Suffering

 

Deacon Kevin Gingras

March 24, 2024

Palm Sunday

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032424.cfm

Is 50:4-7 Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 

Phil 2:6-11   Mk 14:1—15:47

Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death.

Luke, the physician reports in his Gospel that:

Jesus was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.

We must always remember that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human, it is called the hypostatic union, Jesus was both God and man at the same time.  His divinity let him know what he was about to endure, His humanity caused him great stress over this.  Christ’s example here teaches us that we should turn to prayer when we are in fear or pain and we should also submit ourselves fully to God’s will.  That can be the hard part.  This was hard for Jesus as well.

But Jesus' suffering was not in vain, no, it was for the salvation of each and every one of us.  An example for us.  Our suffering can also be offered up for others.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.

Saint John Paul II - In Salvifici  Doloris (Redemptive Suffering)

Those who share in the sufferings of Christ preserve in their own sufferings a very special particle of the infinite treasure of the world's Redemption and can share this treasure with others. The more a person is threatened by sin, the heavier the structures of sin that today's world brings with it, the greater is the eloquence which human suffering possesses in itself. And the more the Church feels the need to have recourse to the value of human sufferings for the salvation of the world.

Our crosses in life can be difficult to carry, sometimes they can feel overwhelming or make us feel very alone.  Our world seems as though we are the only ones in it during those really dark struggles.  These are the times we need to ignore the dark thoughts Satan will place on us and instead unite ourselves with Christ.  It is only after the various sufferings I’ve encountered have passed that I have seen why God allowed me through them, I can see the silver lining and be thankful for them.

St. Faustina tells us:

Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Saviour; in suffering love becomes crystallized; the greater the suffering, the purer the love.