This great suffering, which only a God-Man could endure and take on Himself, as the One Who Is All Good, All Pure, All Innocence, will come upon the Church in the final days of tribulation.
I do not know when this will happen, but I do know this. That a great suffering will come upon the Church soon. This is why I write so much. This is why I write on perfection and being in the Will of God.
This small post is a continuation of this one. http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/christs-passion-passion-of-church-our.html
God will allow the Church to share in His Passion, which we do daily in the Mass.
It is His Will that Catholics become saints and that saints bring others to Him through the Church.
The evil which is gathering against the Church will not look evil to many. It will look like good.
That many will be deceived is already obvious, as many are deceived now.
When I attend the small Tridentine Masses here, as I did in England and in Ireland, I am struck by the smallness of the communities. I am struck by those isolated suffering people I met in Malta who are waiting for God without the TLM.
When God allowed His Son to be Crucified, to be killed, God suffered as did the entire Trinity in some mysterious way. God, Three in One, will allow His Bride to suffer. The suffering of Christ is unique, but God the Father allows this suffering in His Plan. John 14:8-11 reminds us that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. That God the Father would allow suffering is a great mystery, but such was His Plan.
Why? Because as St. Paul states, "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church". Colossians1:24
This is not poetry, but fact. Here is Aquinas....Summa, III Part, Q 48, art. 5
....For someone to redeem, two things are required--namely, the act of paying and the price paid. For if in redeeming something a man pays a price which is not his own, but another's, he is not said to be the chief redeemer, but rather the other is, whose price it is. Now Christ's blood or His bodily life, which "is in the blood," is the price of our redemption (Leviticus 17:11-14), and that life He paid. Hence both of these belong immediately to Christ as man; but to the Trinity as to the first and remote cause, to whom Christ's life belonged as to its first author, and from whom Christ received the inspiration of suffering for us. Consequently it is proper to Christ as man to be the Redeemer immediately; although the redemption may be ascribed to the whole Trinity as its first cause.
The wanting of the sufferings of Christ does not mean that Christ did not take upon Himself all the sins of men and women of all ages. No.
It means that in every age, there is a need for the Crucifixion to bear fruit among the people on the earth.
It means that in every age, Christ is Incarnated, as He is Present in the Eucharist, in the sufferings of the Church. If we allow ourselves to be conformed to Christ, we shall be invited to join Him in His Passion.
This is the mystery of the Passion.
Many years ago, I saw the Caravaggio Conversion of St. Paul in Rome. What has struck me about this painting is that Paul is on the ground, on the road to Damascus, but his body is in the shape of the Cross. It is as though St. Paul is reaching out to the Crucified One already, in imitation of Christ's sacrifice.
This perspective is different than the heresy of "patripassionism" which is connected with modalism and states that God the Father died on the Cross. Of course, this is not true. But, God did suffer and St. Paul states this. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
This perspective is different than the heresy of "patripassionism" which is connected with modalism and states that God the Father died on the Cross. Of course, this is not true. But, God did suffer and St. Paul states this. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor 5:19).
We cannot say that Christ was ever separated from the Trinity. There is a mystery here and a mystery for the Church. We can say that God gave us His Son and did not spare the One He Loves.
Here is Aquinas again: Summa Part III Question 4 Article 3
Here is Aquinas again: Summa Part III Question 4 Article 3
As observed above (Article 2), Christ suffered voluntarily out of obedience to the Father. Hence in three respects God the Father did deliver up Christ to the Passion. In the first way, because by His eternal will He preordained Christ's Passion for the deliverance of the human race, according to the words of Isaias (53:6): "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquitiesof us all"; and again (Isaiah 53:10): "The Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infirmity." Secondly, inasmuch as, by the infusion of charity, He inspired Him with the will to suffer for us; hence we read in the same passage: "He was offered because it was His own will" (Isaiah 53:7). Thirdly, by not shielding Him from the Passion, but abandoning Him to His persecutors: thus we read (Matthew 27:46) that Christ, while hanging upon the cross, cried out: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" because, to wit, He left Him to the power of His persecutors, as Augustine says (Ep. cxl).
Reply to Objection 1. It is indeed a wicked and cruel act to hand over an innocent man to torment and to death against his will. Yet God the Father did not so deliver up Christ, but inspired Him with the will to suffer for us. God's "severity" (cf. Romans 11:22) is thereby shown, for He would not remit sin without penalty: and the Apostle indicates this when (Romans 8:32) he says: "God spared not even His own Son." Likewise His "goodness" (Romans 11:22) shines forth, since by no penalty endured could man pay Him enough satisfaction: and the Apostle denotes this when he says: "He delivered Him up for us all": and, again (Romans 3:25): "Whom"--that is to say, Christ--God "hath proposed to be a propitiation through faith in His blood."
Reply to Objection 2. Christ as God delivered Himself up to death by the same will and action as that by which the Father delivered Him up; but as man He gave Himself up by a will inspired of the Father. Consequently there is no contrariety in the Father delivering Him up and in Christ delivering Himself up.
Reply to Objection 3. The same act, for good or evil, is judged differently, accordingly as it proceeds from a different source. The Father delivered up Christ, and Christ surrendered Himself, from charity, and consequently we give praise to both: but Judas betrayed Christ from greed, the Jews from envy, and Pilate from worldly fear, for he stood in fear of Caesar; and these accordingly are held guilty.
To be continued....
