By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 15
Jesus, our Redeemer, paid the price for our redemption and amply and generously offers us the opportunity to benefit from His redemption though the Church He Himself founded for that very same purpose. But He also said: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
Here is something we do not like very much. To take up the daily cross. We abhor suffering; we would do nearly anything not to suffer in life. But oftentimes we forget that the role of the cross in life has a most important value, and goes alongside prayer and the sacraments.
There are evil events and suffering in men’s lives — everyone knows that. But evil and suffering are lightened and enlightened by the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus our Redeemer. It is His will that suffering and death, which entered the world as the penalty for sin, should be made instruments of sanctification. There is no Christianity without the cross. The life of a Christian is not like a boat loaded with peaches and cream navigating in a sea of honey and champagne — not at all. There is suffering in life.
And we join our sufferings with Christ’s, proving to be His disciples by taking up or daily crosses and following Him.
We can suffer in three different ways; there is no way out of that. We can suffer like saints, like penitents, or like reprobates. We suffer like saints when we have no guilt in our consciences, but God sends us sufferings, and we accept that suffering simply because it was God’s Permitting Will.
Theologians have identified two wills in God, as it were. The Ordaining Will, whereby whatever He ordains happens in the minutest detail; and the Permitting Will, whereby He allows painful and unpleasant things to happen, with a view of a future good.
So the saint suffers by accepting God’s permitting will, even though he, the saint, has nothing in his conscience to accuse him and to give motive for the suffering he is going through. That’s how the patriarch Job suffered: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
We can also suffer like a penitent, accepting the suffering as a well-deserved penance for our sins. That was how King David accepted his sufferings in life: because of his sins. Finally, we can also suffer like a reprobate, a soul in Hell, complaining and cursing and kicking and suffering in the same way.
The best example I know to illustrate these three ways of suffering can be seen on Mount Calvary. Three crucified men underwent the same horrible suffering of the crucifixion, the most dreaded suffering known to men till the Russian and Chinese Communists invented their new forms of torture.
Actually, when we want to say that a person has suffered horribly, we say it was an excruciating suffering. Excruciating literally means “ex” (Latin for “from”) and “cruce” (Latin for “cross”). To suffer excruciatingly is to suffer like a man crucified.
So, on Calvary there were three men crucified. The one in the middle was the Saint, who was totally innocent and prayed for His executioners; the one on His right hand was the penitent, who admitted his sins and accepted the suffering as penance, praying to the Saint to remember him. The one on His left hand was the reprobate, who cursed and insulted and complained, but suffered in the same way as the other two.
We suffer in any of these three ways. If we cannot suffer like saints, let us at least suffer like penitents. “Per Crucem ad Lucem,” said St. Louis de Montfort. Through the Cross into the Light. So evil and suffering are lightened and enlightened by the suffering, death, and Resurrection of our Redeemer. It is His will that suffering and death, which entered the world as the penalty for sin, should be made instruments of sanctification.
There is no Christianity without the cross: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
Here are a few benefits we can derive from suffering:
Suffering brings self-knowledge, teaches us our misery and our absolute dependence upon God.
Suffering humbles us and it brings us down to our real level.
Suffering enables us to know and appreciate how much God loves us. The more we suffer, the more deeply we know how much Jesus Christ loved us to suffer freely for love of us.
Suffering delivers us from superficiality, matures the heart, refines and elevates the spirit.
Suffering enables us to understand others and offer sincere consolation.
Suffering detaches us from Earth, saves us from loving this passing life too much, and teaches us to seek happiness in God and in Heaven.
Suffering offered to God, in, with, and through Jesus Christ, purifies our souls, expiates our sins, and sanctifies us.
Suffering offered to God is a powerful prayer and means of obtaining graces for ourselves and others — above all the grace of conversion and salvation.
Suffering makes us like Jesus Christ, and wins for us a greater share of His Risen Glory.
“In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies. In the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit. In the cross is height of virtue, in the cross is perfection of sanctity. There is no health of soul, nor hope of eternal life, but in the cross. Take up, therefore, the cross, and follow Jesus, and thou shalt go into life everlasting. . . .
“Because if thou die with Him on the cross, thou shalt also live with Him, and if thou art His companion in suffering, thou shalt be His companion also in glory….If thou fling away one cross, without doubt thou wilt find another, and perhaps a heavier. . . . The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do we seek for ourselves only rest and joy?” (from The Imitation of Christ).
The great Crusades, apart from the abuse and miseries that are found in every human undertaking, gave men the opportunity to suffer for Christ, to fight and die to liberate the Holy Land from the oppression of the pagans. When a man joined the Crusade — the word is derived from “cross” — he took upon himself a kind of large scapular, white in color, with a red cross depicted on his chest. From then on, he was the one who took up the cross, who fought for the cross: He was a Crusader.
Next article: The Church of Jesus Christ.
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(Raymond de Souza, KM, is available to speak at Catholic events anywhere in the free world in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Please email SacredHeartMedia@Outlook.com or visit www.RaymonddeSouza.com or phone 507-450-4196 in the United States.)
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