How do you meditate on the Mystery of the Crucifixion? I meditate with difficulty. I tend to end up in the scene in the person of Mary Magdalene. There I am at the foot of the cross. My friend and teacher is dying. How could that be? He has been MY Messiah. I thought he was THE Messiah. But, if he is the Messiah, how can it be that now he hangs—innocent victim of Jewish leader and Roman intrigue?
There is a horror within me, as I pray from the foot of the cross. I don’t want to be here because I don’t want Jesus to be here. But, if he is here, I need to be here, too. The least I can do is to be as close by as I can. I do not suffer Jesus’ physical pain, but my spirit nonetheless joins in his Passion—because I love him and my love for him pulls me to be with him.
What Did St. Paul Mean?
In spite of how I might meditate on the 5th Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, today’s writing from St. Paul to the Colossians has not made sense to me. St. Paul says
I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ
on behalf of his Body, which is the Church,
of which I am a minister
in accordance with God’s stewardship given to me
to bring to completion for you the word of God,
the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.
How could there be anything lacking in the afflictions of Christ? Did he not suffer enough to save us? This is not the only place where St. Paul talks about how he is “completing the word of God.” A number of other examples of this concept in both Paul’s and Peter’s writings are included in St. Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on suffering, Salvifici Doloris. They include these:
- “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh …. knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4: 8-11, 14)
- “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.” (2 Corinthians 1:5)
- “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, 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)
- “But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4: 13)
The Meaning of Suffering
I am part of a book study who is reading Peter Kreeft’s Three Philosophies, a book about the meaning found in the Hebrew books of Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs. This summer we have been reading Job. From Job, last week we went to John Paul’s Salvifici Doloris. That title means, “Suffering to Bring About Salvation.” It is heavy, heavy reading, and none of us felt like we had plummeted the fullness of it. I remain not quite sure I fully understand.
But an extreme simplification that I can at least touch with my mind and soul would be this:
With the rest of the world, we “have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved.” We have been saved: Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, suffered and died to make it possible for me, you, and every person throughout history to not be limited by death. Each and all of us, because he suffered, died, and rose from the dead, can hope to live forever in heaven.
And we will be saved, if we live and die as Christians. We have been marked with God’s indelible mark of ownership, Baptism, and we are God’s children now. While we need to die in a state of grace to be assured of heaven, Christ is “our merciful Savior,” as he described himself to St. Faustina. We don’t have to be perfect.
And there is the part in the middle: “We are being saved” by the joining of Christ’s suffering with our own sufferings (be they frustrations at work or dying of stomach cancer), so that our offering of Christian sacrifice joins the omnipresent evil of suffering to the love of God, so that we, ordinary people living ordinary lives, are bonded with both Jesus and all others in need of redemption to continually become collaboratives in redemption.
St. Pope John Paul II says it this way:
“With these and similar words the witnesses of the New Covenant speak of the greatness of the Redemption, accomplished through the suffering of Christ. The Redeemer suffered in place of man and for man. Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.” (paragraph 19)
Back to Mary Magdalene, You, and Me
I hope I am making sense to you. My own understanding is still under construction. I’m still touched enough by humanism that I tend to see suffering as the ultimate evil. In many ways I have spent my life attempting to prevent or relieve suffering. I do not regret that in any way.
Yet, now, as I am immersed in considering end-of-life issues, I encounter this concept of salvific suffering again and again. It is strong throughout Catholic history and culture. It is the core of that well-known phrase, “Offer it up.” Why do we “offer it up?” Because whatever we offer up, from COVID infection to trying to work from home while keeping children on school tasks to ordinary arthritic aches and pains–if we offer it in Christian “for the good of the other” love–joins Jesus’ sacrifice to bring the evils of suffering to resurrection. Our Catholic faith says when we suffer, our offering of it gives us an opportunity to bring Christ presence into the suffering world in a special, tangible way. In a real sense we CAN BECOME CHRIST’S BODY when we suffer, just as we can become Christ’s body when we receive and live the Eucharist. Within Christianity, every crucifixion gives birth to a resurrection; every suffering, when joined to Christ, lifts us or someone somewhere to be closer to God. That means, in the end, NOTHING is fully evil, for suffering with Christ’s love, always rises. Love offered always triumphs.
Wow!
Prayer:
Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world. Lead me, guide me when life gives me sufferings to join you at the foot of the cross with love like Mary Magdalene.
