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Monday 16 June 2014

On Suffering, Again


Sometimes, a little pamphlet, an old Catholic pamphlet can make one’s day.

I picked up a pamphlet someone was getting rid of from 1998. It is on “suffering”.

Here is a summary of the wisdom of Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, O.P., who wrote this little gem. (My comments are in parentheses).

“Let us remember clearly that: 1) Sufferings come from God for our benefit, (I add, all suffering is willed by God for our own good or the good of others); 2) When we are in the state of grace, we derive immense merit from every suffering borne patiently, even the little sufferings of our daily lives (and I add that if one can endure little ones, one can endure the bigger ones); 3) God will give us abundant strength to bear our sufferings if we only ask Him, (ASK!); 4) If we bear our sufferings patiently, they lose their sting and bitterness (takes practice, so God might give you more suffering if you do not “get this” first time around); 5) Above all, every suffering is a share in the Passion of Our Lord; 6) By our sufferings, we can free ourselves in great part, or entirely, from the pains of Purgatory (one can ask to have one’s purgatory on earth); 7) By bearing our sufferings patiently, we win the glorious crown of martyrdom.”

I want to comment on two of the above points more at length, especially in light of St. Angela’s book I have been reviewing this past week. To share in the Passion of the Lord is not only a necessity for attaining heaven, but a privilege.

To be asked to suffer with Christ seems to me a great honor.

Secondly, this idea of obtaining a crown of martyrdom is found in several commentaries of the saints. I may write a post on this later. However, to obtain a crown of martyrdom for suffering, one must be suffering for Christ, and not for our own sins.

We must do penance, hence the purgation of the Dark Night, in order to be freed from sin.

Suffering over and above that penance is the sharing of the suffering of Christ-a very different plane of suffering.

Although I am posting this on Monday, I am writing this on Sunday evening, the end of the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Recall that God the Father suffered with and because of His Son’s Passion. How fitting it is that Father’s Day fell on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, for we have a Father Who not only gave us His Son, but allowed Himself to be one with Him even in the Passion.

To be continued…