From Suffering to Redemption

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 12:1

Suffering is something we all experience.  While some souls suffer more than others, there are none who escape it.  It is a mystery and hardship of life which has led many to despair.  We lack understanding of why we go through these trials and we get angry with God when they happen.  Yet, throughout history we see certain souls who embrace suffering.  Their point of view can seem nonsensical unless one is firmly grounded in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Within the Easter Triduum, we find the key to what it is we are invited to and how we can be lifted out of despair into rejoicing, even when we are suffering.  We can learn how for the Saint it is through suffering they discovered the bridge between their pain and their redemption and that their sacrifice united to Christ on the Cross brings the glorification of the Mystical Body.

St Paul describes it as an offering of our bodies as a “living sacrifice.” Other Saints have left us their writings, which teach us about the rich depths of love that can be demonstrated through sacrifice. It is Christ’s passion, death and resurrection that reveals to us that this bridge is actually Christ himself, but more specifically his free will sacrifice on the cross. In our desire to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we are all called to take this road from suffering to redemption by participating in the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross. When we freely choose to offer our suffering as sacrifice, Christ redeems. 

When we look at the Eastern Triduum we can see that before Christ invited the Apostles into his Passion and death, and ultimately his resurrection, he invited them to a meal.  It is as if all of time can be captured within these three days, starting with the feast.  From the first meal of disobedience that Adam and Eve took from the Tree of Knowledge, to the Passover and the gift of the Law, to the moment when Christ invited them to the wedding feast of the Lamb, all of time begins with an invitation to a meal.  Christ’s invitation is the undoing of the invitation of Lucifer who perverts the gift that God wants to give, the gift of true love.  The invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb is the invitation of God who wants us to know His love for us.  This invitation is a call to know God and to be totally secure in His love for us, so that we can move past the feast and into the Passion with Christ Himself. 

This is the path all are invited to, but few choose it because in letting go of our attachments we suffer immensely.  The path the Apostles took to glorification is not an easy path because it required them to walk away from all that was keeping them in chains, including fear, judgement, and false expectations. God knew this and it is why He sent His Son. Jesus Christ took on the burden, in order to lighten our burden in our suffering.  The chosen few can partake with Christ in his suffering as an act of reparation for those who, because of the hardness of their hearts, or because of the despair of suffering, are unable to walk the Passion to their own glorification. 

Christ took on all our sin and the effects of our sin, namely pain and sorrow, on the cross. All of our sins must be freely given to Christ on the cross in order to be redeemed. We too can do this by making our way to the foot of the cross spiritually and giving to Christ what he has freely taken on for us. Christ then gives us forgiveness and grace in return. Our free will allows us to either hold onto our sin and our pain and sorrow or to give it to Christ and seek reconciliation. Only Christ can reconcile us to the Father. The one event of the cross of Calvary is a perpetual act that stands at the center of our existence. When we offer Christ our sins in the Sacrament of Confession, we are doing so at the moment of his Crucifixion. God, who is outside of time, forgiveness us here and now, by way of Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross.

For all of us our vision is limited in terms of our own sinfulness. We often do not even see all the ways we need to be reconciled back to the Father. Ultimately, all of our sin must be given to Christ on the cross. We cannot hold anything back from full reconciliation if we desire heaven. Some people build up bigger walls than others so that they don’t have to look at all their offenses to God. The harder our hearts, the bigger the walls, the harder it will be for us to recognize and freely give to Christ our offenses against the Father. One great spiritual exercise is a nightly examination of conscience. When we get into the habit of examining our soul daily, we will slowly chip away at the walls we’ve built up in our hearts, opening up more space for the Holy Spirit to live and move within us through the mercy of God.

While you and I may be able to do this work within our own hearts to a certain degree, many souls are unable or unwilling to do this on their own. We all still have spiritual blindness to some degree. What we are unable to see and do for ourselves, the other members of the Mystical Body of Christ are able to come to our aid. The Church invites us all to be sacrificial souls who are willing to freely take on suffering as an offering for the other. It is a free will act of love. In doing this we essentially suffer as a sacrificial offering of love for the other, so that the other can receive the healing mercy of God. In order to do this we must be secure in God’s love and united to the Cross, understanding that other souls are too broken to see the love God has for them. Through self-sacrifice for the other, it can be likened to an army of soldiers coming to the aid of the soldier behind enemy lines.  The Church Militant uniting with the Church Suffering and Triumphant in the battle for the souls left on earth.  This is Christ’s invitation to full communion.

To be clear, we are not the ones doing the saving. It is always the Holy Spirit doing the work of convicting the soul to return to God the Father and be reconciled through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are merely aiding in the other’s reception of the Holy Spirit by taking on suffering on their behalf, giving them a sort of reprieve, so that the Spirit may be welcomed to do the work of conversion. It is the imitation of Christ.

God does not force anyone to be a sacrificial soul. He merely invites those who are willing and able. Some souls will be called to this as a lifelong commitment, while others may just be asked to sacrifice for a close loved one. There are many Saints who have been called to commit their lives to sacrificing for sinners such as St Catherine of Siena, St Faustina, St Rose of Lima, St Padre Pio, St Therese of Lisieux, St Gemma Galgani, Venerable Mary of Agreda, Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida, just to name a few. These Saints fully understood what the Lord was asking of them. They desired to help pour sinners be reconciled with God. These Saints had a deep love of God and their hearts were moved to love as deeply as God loved them. The way this was revealed to them was by uniting themselves to Christ on the cross. These Saints were so grateful to have found their precious pearl that they wanted all souls to find this greatest love of God as well. They were willing to suffer in love and for love; love of God and love of neighbor, for the salvation of sinners. 

What is love if not an act of the will. Whether it be surrounded by consolations and good feelings or not, love is total self gift. It is a willingness to selflessly give without expectation of receiving anything in return. When we feel consolations to give of ourselves it is easy to love. When we do not feel consolations or even when we feel pain and sorrow, it is much harder to love, much harder to sacrifice, but this is the way of Christ. This is what Christ shows us from the cross and it’s what he’s inviting us into every day of our lives. When we love even when it hurts, even when it costs us something, we love in the deepest way possible because we share in Christ’s perfect love from the cross.

Those who are willing to lose their own consolation for their neighbors’ welfare receive and gain me and their neighbors… and so they enjoy the graciousness of my charity at all times.

St Catherine of Siena

Sacrificial love frees the soul. It gives the soul wings to fly. Jesus endured the cross in perfect love for all of humanity and thus he was totally free while nailed to the cross. We are filled with Christ through the Eucharistic meal, we are then invited to approach the cross of Christ in order to learn how to love deeply. Whether we go there ourselves willingly and offer our offenses in order to be reconciled with God, or we go on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ in order to aid them in their own turning back to the Lord, we need not fear the cross. All of the Saints became Saints by way of the cross. There is no other way to Heaven besides the cross. When we bravely follow Christ to the cross, it always leads to the resurrection. The culmination of time as we partake in the Easter Triduum.

When we see the wounds of Christ in heaven, we see that the reparation of Christ did not remove the wounds, but glorified them, making them a source of grace for those on earth.  Christ has light pouring through those wounds.  This light showers grace on souls who partake in His suffering for the sake of other souls. This lent I invite you to place yourself at the foot of the cross and speak to Christ from there. Look upon his Holy Face and be saved.

This post was written with the help of my good friend Susan Skinner.

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