We live in a world that runs from suffering. Since the time of our youth, we have been conditioned to view suffering as an impediment (A hindrance or obstruction in doing something ) to happiness. This worldview which is so imbued (Inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality) in our culture, tells us, that the less we suffer, the happier we will be.
Yet, in the writings of the Saints, we find an entirely different reality; that it is precisely suffering that strengthens us, humbles us, and forges us into saints.
But more than this, we discover that suffering is of such inestimable redemptive worth, that nothing equals it in heaven or on earth. As Our Lord told Saint Faustina; "If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering." (p.1805) But why is this so? Why has the motto of the Saints down through the centuries always been; "to love and to suffer"? Why is it not;"to love and to do good works", or "to love and to preach"?
According to the Saints, when we seek to deny our wills and offer sufferings in love for Our Lord, we draw down from heaven more grace than any other action we can possibly make.
After such sufferings the soul finds itself in a state of great purity of spirit and very close to God. But I should add that during these spiritual torments it is close to God, but it is blind. The soul's vision is plunged into darkness, and though God is nearer than ever to the soul which is suffering, the whole secret consists in the fact that it knows nothing of this. The soul in fact declares that, not only has God abandoned it, but it is the object of His hatred. With how great a malady are they eyes of the soul afflicted! When struck by divine light, the soul affirms that this light does not exist, although it is precisely because this divine light is so bright that it is blinded. Yet despite all, I learned later that God is closer to a soul at such moments than at others, because it would not be able to endure these trials with the help of ordinary grace alone. God's omnipotence and an extraordinary grace must be active here, for otherwise the soul would succumb at the first blow. (St. Faustina, p.109)
In fact, the saints teach us that suffering is of such great merit, that it is greater than external works such as preaching, writing, or even working miracles.
The defining moment of redemption for the human race was not when Our Lord healed the sick or preached in the synagogues. It was when the God-Man was nailed to a cross and drained of His blood out of love for mankind. We see then that there is no greater measure of our love than our willingness to follow in the footsteps of Our Redeemer, that is; our willingness to be affixed to a cross and to suffer, just as the apostles (Acts 5:41, 14:21, Rom 8:18, 2 Corinthians 12:10, etc.). By doing so, we join in the redemptive work of Christ through our sufferings (Col 1:24). We become little co-redeemers, and merit the conversion and sanctification of souls. This is the final end of suffering; the salvation of mankind. As Our Lady told the world at Fatima; "Many souls go to hell because there is no one to sacrifice themselves and pray for them." And if this is so, should it then be any coincidence that that which is so cherished by Our Lord, is that which is most feared and misunderstood by the world?
Saint Gemma Galgani, letters
Jesus spoke these words; "My child, I have need of victims, and strong victims, who by their sufferings, tribulations, and difficulties, make amends for sinners and for their ingratitude."
Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Book VI, Chp. V
Words of the Queen: "I remind thee that there is no exercise more profitable and useful to the soul than to suffer....Therefore, my daughter, embrace the cross, and do not admit any consolation outside of it in this mortal life. By contemplating and feeling within thyself the sacred Passion, thou wilt attain the summit of perfection and attain the love of a spouse...I find so few who console with me and try to console my Son in His sorrows..."
Diary of Saint Faustina
"Jesus says; 'My daughter, I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone. I want to see you as a sacrifice of living love, which only then carries weight before Me. You must be annihilated, destroyed, living as if you were dead in the most secret depths of your being. You must be destroyed in that secret depth where the human eye has never penetrated; then will I find in you a pleasing sacrifice, a holocaust full of sweetness and fragrance. And great will be your power for whomever you intercede. Outwardly, your sacrifice must look like this: silent, hidden, permeated with love, imbued with prayer. I demand, My daughter, that your sacrifice be pure and full of humility, that I may find pleasure in it. I will not spare My grace, that you may be able to fulfill what I demand of you."
Saint Teresa of the Andes, on Religious Life, (age 15), Letters p.121
"Her sacrifice is perpetual, without mitigation, from the time her religious life begins until she dies as a victim according to the example of Jesus Christ. And she does all this in silence with no one aware of it. Yet how many are there who think of this life as useless. Nevertheless, she (the religious) is like the Lamb of God. She removes sins from the world. She sacrifices herself to bring back to the sheepfold those sheep who have gone astray. But just as Christ did not know the world, neither does she know it. This abnegation enchants me completely. There is no room for self-love. She doesn't even see the fruit of her prayer. In heaven alone will she know this."
Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, p.27
"I understood that to become a saint one had to suffer much, seek out always the most perfect thing to do, and forget self. I understood, too, that there are many degrees of perfection and each soul was free to respond to the advances of the Our Lord, to do little or much for Him, in a word, to choose among the sacrifices He was asking. Then, as in the days of my childhood, I cried out: 'My God I choose all!' I do not want to be a saint by halves, I'm not afraid to suffer for You, I fear only one thing: to keep my own will; so take it, for I choose all that You will!"
Padre Pio, Secrets of a Soul, p.47
"Jesus said to me; 'How many times would you have abandoned Me, my son, if I had not crucified you. Beneath the cross, one learns love, and I do not give this to everyone, but only to those souls who are dearest to Me."
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But how can God be happy when we suffer?
Saint Therese answers this question; "Never does our suffering make Him happy, but it is necessary for us, and so He sends it to us, while, as it were, turning away His face.... I assure you that it costs Him dearly to fill us with bitterness. The good God, who so loves us, has pain enough in being obliged to leave us on earth to fulfill our time of trial, without our constantly telling Him of our discomfort; we must appear not to notice it...Far from complaining to Our Lord of the cross which He sends us, I cannot fathom the infinite love which has led Him to treat us this way...What a favor from Jesus, and how He must love us to send us so great a sorrow! Eternity will not be long enough to bless Him for it." -(Joy In Suffering, pg.8) We see then that far from being an impediment to happiness, suffering can actually become a mechanism of our happiness. As the Servant of God Fr. John Hardon exclaimed;
"Love wants to suffer for the Beloved... Love wants to expiate the sins that have so deeply penetrated mankind. Love wants to make up for the lack of love among those who sin. Love wants to relieve the debt of suffering that sinners owe to God. Love wants to give God what sinners are depriving Him of by their sins."
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The Purgative, Unitive, and Redemptive qualities of Suffering
As we read in the writings of the saints, we begin to understand more clearly the distinct fruits of suffering.
- Purgative
Suffering acts to purify the soul, revealing its own weakness and impurities, and causes the soul to realize its own unworthiness. This degree is characterized as a purification [n.b., Purgative Way]. It is the first and most necessary step towards union with Our Lord. In this stage, the soul can be likened to a baby, which needs continual comfort and nurture from its parents. And just as a good father is quick in showering his child with many gifts, so too does our Father in heaven do to the young soul, to give it stregnth to be further purified. This sweetness stirs up in the soul feelings of love, gratitude, compunction, and the desire for greater suffering. Yet there will also be times when Our Lord removes these consolations, so that the soul does not become attached to the sweetness alone. As Thomas A. Kempis writes; “God wants you to learn to suffer tribulation without comfort and, submitting yourself entirely to Him, to grow in humility through tribulation. No one so deeply feels what Christ endured as one who has had to suffer as He did.” Saint John of the Cross believed that this stage was so necessary, that without a complete and total eradication of the appetites and self-will, a soul will never advance to higher degrees of holiness. He states; "One inordinate appetite alone....suffices to make the soul so captive, dirty, and unsightly, that until the appetite is purified, the soul is incapable of conformity with God in union. [...] It makes little difference whether a bird is tied down by a thread or by a chain. The bird will be held down just the same."
2. Unitive
The second quality results from the first, in that it draws the soul into close union with God in a way that nothing else on this earth is able to. In this stage, the soul begins to become inflamed with a burning love for Our Lord, and begins to realize what it once thought was love, was only an imperfect affection. It is now beginning to understand what true love consists. As Saint Faustina said; "Sufferings, adversities, humiliations, failures and suspicions that have come my way are splinters that keep alive the fire of my love for You, O Jesus." The Servant of God Fr. John Hardon once wrote; "We Love God Only in the measure that we are willing to suffer." And so, after many trials and purifications, now the soul is beginning to truly love. Just as the force of a magnet increases as it draws nearer to iron, so too does the union between God and the soul increase the more it is purified through suffering and self-denial. But now, the soul is still not yet perfect. Our Lord desires that the soul continues to advance, as He has prepared even greater graces for it. And so the soul may begin to experience more intense periods of interior darkness, or nights, where it must learn to renounce not only its carnal appetites, but also spiritual apetites as well (that is; the desire for consolations, sweetness in prayer, spiritual gifts, etc.), relying solely on obedience as its guide. And so, as a blind man in darkness, so too must the soul become detached from even spiritual attachments, and lean on faith alone. In this darkness, the soul makes the greatest progress, but without realizing it. It is only until the darkness passes that the soul looks back and sees a great distance and height it has summited. And if the soul perseveres, the greater will its love be inflamed, until it can be said that Christ has taken posession of the soul without any hinderance on its part.
- Redemptive
The third quality of suffering brings the greatest joy to holy souls, because it most resembles the suffering of Our Crucified Lord. Redemptive suffering is the highest form of suffering because it is directed outward toward souls. It is the culminating act in the work of Christ, and thus there is nothing greater that we can do in our imitation of Him. This form of suffering not only surves to sanctify the soul, but also the Church as well, and indeed the entire world. In this way, the soul participates most intimately with the mission of our Creator. While it is true that a soul does not necessarily have to pass through the first two qualities of suffering in order to suffer redemptively (Any form of suffering, no matter how small, has the potential to take on a redemptive character. Saint Teresa says that even a toothache can be offered for the conversion of sinners), it is also true that the more a soul has been tested and tried in the previous two kinds of suffering, the more graces will its redemptive suffering merit. Therefore, if a soul truly wants to convert the greatest number of souls and bring the greatest glory to God in this life, then it must put its hand to the plow of self-mastery, that is; self-conversion. As Saint Faustina said; "O my Jesus, I know that, in order to be useful to souls, one has to strive for the closest possible union with You, who are Eternal Love... I can be wholly useful to the Church by my personal sanctity, which throbs with life in the whole Church, for we all make up one organism in Jesus." To illustrate this reality, she was later made to understand that she saved a thousand souls in just forty days through her prayers and sacrifices alone, behind the walls of the cloister;
Saint Faustina
"On the First Friday of the month, before Communion, I saw a large ciborium filled with sacred hosts. A hand placed the ciborium in front of me, and I took it in my hands. There were a thousand living hosts inside. Then I heard a voice, These are hosts which have been received by the souls for whom you have obtained the grace of true conversion during this Lent." (Diary, p640)
Saint Teresa of the Andes
"We [religious] are co-redeemers of the world. And souls are not redeemed without the cross."
In a vision given to Saint Faustina, we observe how religious communities sustain the world in existence, acting as a shield blunting the sword of God's justice upon the world;
"During the renewal of the vows, I saw the Lord Jesus on the Epistle side (of the altar), wearing a white garment with a golden belt and holding a terrible sword in His hand. This lasted until the moment when the sisters began to renew their vows. Then I saw a resplendence beyond compare and, in front of this brilliance, a white cloud in the shape of a scale. Then Jesus approached and put the sword on one side of the scale, and it fell heavily towards the ground until it was about to touch it. Just then the sisters finished renewing their vows. Then I saw Angels who took something from each of the sisters and placed it in a golden vessel on the other side of the scale, it immediately out weighed and raised up the side on which the sword had been laid. At that moment, a flame issued forth from the thurible, and it reached all the way to the brilliance. Then I heard a voice coming from the brilliance: "Put the sword back in its place; the sacrifice is greater."
What great glory, at so little cost! And how few people really understand this reality! As Our Lady revealed to Venerable Mary of Agreda, if the saints in heaven were able to feel regret, they would be astonished at themselves for not making full use of the time by letting no opportunity pass for sacrifice. Let us then take advantage of this gift that we have been given, and recall the profound love Our Lord has for us. All He asks of us is our love, and if we are willing, a little suffering. And for such a small price, He will descend into the world and reverse the fate of souls who have co-signed themselves to eternal destruction. What then is a little discomfort on earth, compared to an eternity of bliss? As the saints reveal to us, there is no greater weapon for conversion than this.
Jesus to Saint Faustina
"For the sake of your love, I withhold the just chastisements, which mankind has deserved. A single act of pure love pleases Me more than a thousand imperfect prayers. One of your sighs of love atones for many offenses with which the godless overwhelm Me. The smallest act of virtue has unlimited value in My eyes because of your great love for Me. In a soul that lives on My love alone, I reign as in heaven. I watch over it day and night. In it I find My happiness; My ear is attentive to each request of its heart; often I anticipate its requests. O child, especially beloved by Me, apple of My eye, rest a moment near My Heart and taste of the love in which you will delight for all eternity. But child, you are not yet in your homeland; so go, fortified by My grace, and fight for My kingdom in human souls; fight as a king's child would; and remember that the days of your exile will pass quickly, and with them the possibility of earning merit for heaven. I expect from you, My child, a great number of souls who will glorify My mercy for all eternity. My child, that you may answer My call worthily, receive Me daily in Holy Communion. It will give you strength'... Jesus, do not leave me alone in suffering. You know, Lord, how weak I am. I am an abyss of wretchedness, I am nothingness itself; so what will be so strange if You leave me alone and I fall? I am an infant, Lord, so I cannot get along by myself. However, beyond all abandonment I trust, and in spite of my own feeling I trust, and I am being completely transformed into trust-often in spite of what I feel. Do not lessen any of my sufferings, only give me strength to bear them. Do with me as You please, Lord, only give me the grace to be able to love You in every event and circumstance. Lord, do not lessen my cup of bitterness, only give me strength that I may be able to drink it all. O Lord, sometimes You lift me up to the brightness of visions, and then again You plunge me into the darkness of night and the abyss of my nothingness, and my soul feels as if it were alone in the wilderness. Yet, above all things, I trust in You, Jesus, for You are unchangeable. My moods change, but You are always the same, full of mercy."
I will now instruct you on what your holocaust shall consist of, in everyday life, so as to preserve you from illusions. You shall accept all sufferings with love. Do not be afflicted if your heart often experiences repugnance and dislike for sacrifice. All its power rests in the will, and so these contrary feelings, far from lowering the value of the sacrifice in My eyes, will enhance it. Know that your body and soul will often be in the midst of fire. Although you will not feel My presence on some occasions, I will always be with you. Do not fear; My grace will be with you...[...] "O my Jesus, farewell; I must go already to take up my tasks. But I will prove my love for You with sacrifice, neither neglecting nor letting any chance for practicing it slip by.
Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Book VI, Chp. IV
Words of the Queen: "If my lord and master has made Himself the life and the way for men though his Passion and Death, is it not evident that in order to go that way and live up to this truth, they must follow Christ crucified, afflicted, scourged and affronted? Consider the ignorance of men who wish to come to the Father without following Christ, since they expect to reign with God without suffering or imitating his Passion, yea without even a thought of accepting any part of his suffering and Death, or of thanking Him for it. They want it to procure for them the pleasures of this life as well as of eternal life, while Christ their Creator has suffered the most bitter pains and torments in order to enter heaven and to show them by His example how they are to fight the way of light.
"...but they [mankind] make their recovery impossible, since all of them are weak and afflicted by many sins, for which the only remedy is suffering...tribulation earns the pardon of the just Judge. By the bitterness of sorrow and affliction the vapors of sin are allayed; the excesses of the concupisible and irascible passions are crushed; pride and haughtiness are humiliated; the flesh is subdued; the inclination to evil, to the sensible, and to earthly creatures is repressed; the judgement is cleared; the will is brought within bounds and its desultory movements at the call of the passions, are corrected; and above all, divine love and pity are drawn down upon the afflicted, who embrace suffering with patience, or who seek to imitate my most holy Son. In this science of suffering are renewed all the blessed riches of the creatures; those that fly from them are insane, those that know nothing of this science are foolish."
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What if I am afraid of suffering?
When we think of suffering, the images that often come to mind may be rather extreme ones; hospital beds, terminal illnesses, or perhaps even torture and martyrdom. Some might even think of the more austere corporal penances of the saints, such as self-flagellation, sleeping on broken glass, or fasting on the Holy Eucharist alone as nourishment. But the suffering that the saints speak of is not primarily in these external forms that, to our senses, seem more extreme. In fact, such suffering carries little merit if it is done out of self-will, desire for honors, attention, pride, or any other disorderly affection. Rather, what matters more than the external form, is how we respond interiorly to all that Our Lord presents to us each day; from something as simple as a tooth ache, to a terminal illness; all can work to obtain the grace of conversion. The key is making an active effort to turn our daily trials and inconveniences into life giving manna for souls; principally by making a continual act of self-denial in all things, with no other purpose than shear love of God and a desire to please Him, whether it is denying our taste in food, an impulse to correct, a temptation to disobedience, an attachment to our opinion, a desire for comfort, a preference for a certain creature or worldly conversation; in short, any attachment to all that it not directed towards God. Such acts, if done perseveringly out of love for God and neighbor, require such great heroic virtue, that they can obtain more merit than that of martyrdom. How do we know this is true? Because physical martyrdom only kills the body, and thus is of an inferior nature to the martyrdom of the soul, which is of infinitely greater worth. As Our Lady told Venerable Mary of Agreda; "For I assure thee, my dearest, that those who are perfect and punctual in their religious obligations can equal and even surpass the martyrs in merit." This same sentiment is echoed by Saint Therese; "There are trifles that please Our Lord more than the conquest of the world; a smile or a kindly word, for instance, when I feel inclined to say nothing or to appear bored." If one is still afraid of suffering, it may be comforting to know that you are not alone, since even the saints had to grow in their love;
Diary of Saint Faustina
"At the beginning of my religious life, suffering and adversities frightened and disheartened me. So I prayed continuously, asking Jesus to strengthen me and to grant me the power of His Holy Spirit that I might carry out His holy will in all things, because from the beginning I have been aware of my weakness." [p. 56] She later writes; "From the moment I came to love suffering, it ceased to be a suffering for me. Suffering is the daily food of my soul."
Thus, the saints remind us that there is no reason to fear suffering, for when God permits sufferings for His sake, He helps the soul by infusing into it the grace necessary to bear affliction faithfully and joyfully. If a soul cannot handle suffering, then Our Lord will not force suffering upon her. Our Lord is gentle, and does not impose His hand unless we permit Him to do so, as He so honors our free will. As the Apostles rejoiced in their sufferings for the sake of the Kingdom (cf. Acts 5:41; also Col. 1:24 , 1 Cor. 1:23, Rom. 8:17, Matt. 16:24, John 12:24) so too must we; for there is nothing that gives God greater glory than this proof of our love.
Diary of Saint Faustina
"Once, when I was in the kitchen with Sister N., she got a little upset with me and, as a punishment, ordered me to sit on the table while she herself continued to work hard, cleansing and scrubbing. And while I was sitting there, the sisters came along and were astounded to find me sitting on the table, and each one had her say. One said that I was a loafer and another, "What an eccentric!" I was a postulant at the time. Others said, "What kind of of a sister will she make?" Still, I could not get down because sister had ordered me to sit there by virtue of obedience until she told me to get down. Truly, God alone knows how many acts of self denial it took. I thought I'd die of shame. God often allowed such things for the sake of my inner formation, but He compensated me for this humiliation by a great consolation. During Benediction I saw Him in great beauty. Jesus looked at me kindly and said, 'My daughter, do not be afraid of sufferings; I am with you.'
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Distrust Wounds Our Lord More than Anything Else!
In sufferings, the soul must trust that it is in God's care, and that nothing will harm it--for God's goodness will never give a soul more than it can bear, or more than it permits to bear. Our trust in His goodness must be unerring and absolute;
Saint Faustina
"[Jesus says;] Distrust on the part of souls is tearing at My insides. The distrust of a chosen soul causes Me even greater pain; despite My inexhaustible love for them they do not trust Me. Even My death is not enough for them. Woe to the soul that abuses these gifts."
Saint Faustina
"Your great trust in Me forces me to continuously grant you graces. You have great and incomprehensible rights over My Heart, for you are a daughter of complete trust."
Padre Pio
"O what precious moments these are. It is a happiness that the Lord gives me to relish almost always in moments of affliction. At these moments, more than ever, when the whole world troubles and weighs on me, I desire nothing other than to love and to suffer. Yes my father, even in the midst of so much suffering I am happy because it seems as if my heart is beating with Jesus' heart."
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To Court the Cross
If suffering is the greatest form of love, then meditation on Our Lord's passion is the greatest form of meditation. As Jesus told Saint Faustina once; "There is more merit to one hour of meditation on My sorrowful Passion than there is to a whole year of flagellation that draws blood; the contemplation of My painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings Me great joy." A soul that always has Our Lord's Passion and Our Lady's agony on the forefront of its mind will make rapid progress in the spiritual life, for it is through the passion of Our Lord that God's love for man is revealed in its highest form. We read similar sentiments in a vision given to Saint Faustina, during a time when she had great dryness of prayer;
Diary, October 11, 1933 : "Jesus was suddenly standing before me, stripped of His clothes, His body completely covered with wounds, His eyes flooded with tears and blood, His face disfigured and covered with spittle. The Lord then said to me, "The bride must resemble her Betrothed." I understood these words to the very depth. There is no room for doubt here. My likeness to Jesus must be through suffering and humility. "See what love of human souls has done to Me. My daughter, in your heart I find everything that so great a number of souls refuses Me. Your heart is My repose. I often wait with great graces until towards the end of prayer."
Padre Pio, Secrets of a Soul: "When Jesus wants me to understand that He loves me, He allows me to savor the wounds, the thorns, the agonies of His passion...When He wants to delight me, He fills my heart with that spirit which is all fire; He speaks to me of His delights. But when He wants to be delighted, He speaks to me of His sorrows, He invites me -- with a voice full of both supplication and authority -- to affix my body [to the cross] in order to alleviate His suffering. Who can resist Him? I realize how much my miseries have caused Him to suffer, how much I have offended Him. I desire no other than Jesus alone, I want nothing more than His pains (because this is what Jesus wishes). Let me say--since no one can hear me--I am disposed to remain forever deprived of the sweetness Jesus allows me to feel. I am ready to suffer Jesus hiding His beautiful eyes from me, so long as He does not hide His love from me, because then I would die. But I do not feel I can be deprived of suffering--for this I lack strength. [...] Perhaps I have not yet expressed myself clearly with regards to the secret of this suffering. Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, wants all Christians to imitate Him; He has offered this chalice to me yet again, and I have accepted it. That is why He does not spare me. My humble sufferings are worth nothing, but Jesus delights in them because He loved [suffering] on earth...Now shouldn't this alone be enough to humiliate me, to make me seek to be hidden from the eyes of men, since I was made worthy of suffering with Jesus and as Jesus? Ah, my father! I feel too keenly my ingratitude toward God's majesty."
Taken from: religious-vocation.com
