Today’s second reading is from the First Letter of St. Peter. St. Peter writes to Christians in far-flung areas in Asia Minor who were experiencing ostracism and persecution for their faith. The reading begins:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
In her article, The Real Reasons Catholics Love the Crucifix (Catholic Answers, October 1, 2000), Mary Beth Kremski observes, “Notice the vital connection between our personal participation in the sufferings of Christ and reaping the fruits of those sufferings—i.e., grace for other members of the body, glory, resurrection, the inheritance of Christ.” In other words, not only can it be virtuous to endure patiently in imitation of Christ, there can be tangible benefits from offering these sufferings for the benefit of others.
In her book, Offer it Up: Discovering the Power and Purpose of Redemptive Suffering, author Megan Hjemstad explores the value of offering our sufferings to Christ to help others, transforming a difficult experience into a difficult but meaningful one, and teaching us that “[o]ur cross is intended to be for the good of others too.” Hjemstad learned the hard way through her own suffering – in her case, an illness that was not only painful but, in her view, initially, highly inconvenient in a busy and productive family and professional life. She came to see that “God knows when allowing a particular suffering might actually be medicinal for our souls in the long run and how it might help us to reach heaven.” While we may wrestle impatiently with the “why” in a given situation, she points out that God’s “higher ways and timing are based on His full knowledge of our lives and what will be best for us in the context of forever.”
Of course, while God allows us to be His co-workers in this way, He invites but does not force us to turn to Him and accept the graces offered. With that in mind, Hjemstad provides a wealth of practical information on how to begin to give our sufferings a dimension of meaningfulness, to make them fruitful and not futile. She discusses the concepts of a daily morning offering in advance, “redemptive routines,” “task mastering,” and others to help us benefit from her experience in finding concrete ways to unlock the meaning in our challenges.
Pope St. John Paul II, in his 1984 Apostolic Letter “Salvifici Doloris” on the Christian meaning of human suffering, writes on these concepts in depth. Quoting Saint Paul in his letter to the Colossians (“I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake”), he points out that a source of joy is found in the overcoming of the sense of the uselessness of suffering, sometimes very strongly rooted in human suffering. He goes on to observe, “The discovery of the salvific meaning of suffering in union with Christ transforms this depressing feeling.” Faith in sharing in the suffering of Christ brings with it the certainty that in the spiritual dimension of the work of Redemption, the suffering person [like Christ] is serving the salvation of his brothers and sisters and, therefore, carries out an irreplaceable service.
Pope St. John Paul concludes,
Together with Mary, Mother of Christ, who stood beneath the Cross, we pause beside all the crosses of contemporary man.
We invoke all the Saints, who down the centuries in a special way shared in the suffering of Christ. We ask them to support us.
And we ask all you who suffer to support us. We ask precisely you who are weak, to become a source of strength for the Church and humanity. In the terrible battle between the forces of good and evil, revealed to our eyes by our modern world, may your suffering in union with the Cross of Christ be victorious!
[Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10]
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