During Lent we too often find that we are sacrificing by giving something up but not embracing God or not focusing on God’s call to us. Lent is a time of moving closer to God; transformimg ourselves so that our silversmith, God, who is wishing to purify us, can hold us to the fire until he sees his image in us.
A great method of doing an action that brings us to God’s will of loving your neighbor, turning from sin, and embracing suffering is being merciful. We are called in Jesus’ Divine Mercy to be merciful in words, deeds, and prayer. One of the most difficult ways of being merciful and embracing suffering that St. Faustina was led to practice by Jesus was not defending herself when being falsely accused by one of her fellow sisters in their order. In practicing and perfecting that act of mercy you have to quiet the most active part of your body, the tongue. She had to do this to empty herself of her desires so that she could be Jesus’ instrument of mercy for the whole world. This practice led her to an increase in love of God as she wrote in her diary #343
“True love is measured by the thermometer of suffering. Jesus, I thank you for the little daily crosses, for opposition to my endeavors, for the hardships of communial life, for the misinterpretation of my intentions, for humiliations at the hands of others, for the harsh way in which we are treated, for false suspicions, for poor health and loss of strength, for self-denial, for dying to myself, for lack of recognition in everything, for the upsetting of all my plans.
Thank You, Jesus, for interior sufferings, for dryness of spirit, for terrors, fears, and incertitudes, for the darkness and the deep interior night, for temptations and various ordeals, for torments to difficult to describe, especially for those which no one will understand, for the hour of death with its fierce struggle and all its bitterness.”
“I Thank You, Jesus, You who first drank the cup of bitterness before you gave it to me in such milder form. I put my lips to the cup of your holy will. Let all be done according to your good pleasure; let that which your wisdom ordained before the ages be done to me. I want to drink the cup to its last drop, and seek not to know the reason why. In bitterness is my joy, in hopelessness is my trust. In You, O Lord, all is good, all is a gift of Your paternal heart.”
Great writing for an uneducated nun. She embraced her cross and was led there through being merciful and loving towards others and above all dying to herself which was all necessary for her to carry out the mission of mercy for Jesus. So, let us ask ourselves in what way is the Lord asking me to die in order that the mission he has for me will result in its completion? There are those who will say that God doesn’t need you to perform acts for him but then why in the gospels was Jesus always inviting man and including man as in the raising of Lazerus or the feeding the thousands of people the fish and bread?
Pope Benedic XVI while a cardinal had an interview with Peter Seewald and in that conversation the then Cardinal Ratzinger commented on love and suffering:
“Today what people have in view is eliminating suffering from the world. For the individual, that means avoiding pain and suffering in whatever way. Yet we must also see that it is in this very way that the world becomes hard and cold. Pain is part of being human. Anyone who really wanted to get rid of suffering would have to get rid of love before anything else, because there can be no love without suffering, because it always demands an element of self-sacrifice, because given tempermental differences and the drama of situations, it will always bring with it renunciation and pain.
“When we know that the way of love-this exodus, this going out of oneself-is the true way by which man becomes human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature. Anyone who has inwardly accepted suffering becomes more mature and more understanding of others, becomes more human. Anyone who has avoided suffering does not understand other people; he becomes hard and selfish.”
In my own limited experience in this area I came to embrace Jesus’ mission for me. In 1997 I ruptured my achilles tendon and while I started recovering I thought I would pray all of the decades of the rosary daily instead of just one and that I would read more about my faith. However, I did not embrace my pain and offer it to the Lord in a daily consecration therefore I did not complete my rosaries rather I felt sorry for myself and embraced television. I discovered the show “Law and Order” for the first time.
A year and a half later I deveoped back pain and it became so intense that I could no longer work and I needed surgery. So, I thought that now the Lord is giving me a second chance and is asking to to slow down from the world and come closer to Him. This time I prayed those rosaries daily and read more about my faith and it opened a new world of spirituality that I was not aware of at that time. After recovery while at mass our pastor discussed the upcoming ordination of the class to the permanent diaconate. These words went stright to my heart so I went to him and told him I would like to be a deacon even though I didn’t know what a deacon did. This began that process; if I had refused my suffering and not embraced it I would have never opened myself to the love that Jesus has for me and his will for me.
What stories do you have on suffering and embracing your cross that led you to a fuller relationship with Jesus?
