24th Sunday - Accept Sufferings

 

 In the Gospel today, Our Lord first told His disciples, He must go to Jerusalem to suffer greatly, be killed and on the third day rise.

Peter rebuked Jesus because He didn’t want Him to suffer and die. At first, this sounds very noble. Nobody would want someone they love to suffer and die. However, Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan. You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God, but as human beings do.” He wanted Peter to know that to run from suffering, is the way of the world, not the way of God. Jesus called Peter, Satan, because only Satan would want Our Lord and us to avoid the Cross.

The Crucifixion was necessary to defeat the devil, to reveal God’s sacrificial love for us and to teach us to love. This is why Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to come after me, must deny Himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

Our Lord wanted to teach His apostles and His followers to not reject the cross, but embrace it. And they did. All but John were martyred, but they tried to kill him too.

The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France has 70 officially approved medical miracles. But there has been thousands of unapproved miracles. Those who go to Lourdes, will bathe in the miraculous waters and ask the Virgin Mary for a physical healing.

But most of them receive a healing they don’t expect. They obtain a spiritual healing, by receiving the grace to carry the Cross of their illness, and they will peace in their hearts.

Millions of people go there every year for healing. It seems like most often, once people accept the cross of their suffering, it is then the Lord heals them.

When we accept sufferings, they can be used to atone for our sins and reduce our purgatory time. Sufferings when united to the Cross of Jesus can be offered up for the conversion of sinners and help bring about the salvation of souls. Sufferings keep us close to Jesus, because we become more dependent upon Him.

The Virgin Mary told the children of Fatima to embrace their crosses, She said, “Make sacrifices for sinners, and say often, especially while making a sacrifice: ‘O Jesus, this is for love of thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’”

When we deny our self and carry our crosses, we sacrifice our self for love of Jesus, for the conversion of sinners and to console the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Saint Faustina in her diary (Diary #1804), wrote, “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.” And she said, “I united my sufferings with the sufferings of Jesus and offered them for myself and for the conversion of souls who do not trust in God...“ (Diary #323)

We should cherish our crosses because through them we gain eternal life. As St. Rose of Lima said, “Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.”

St. Teresa of Avila said, “I would always choose the path of suffering, if only to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ, if there were no other gain. In order to bear our afflictions with patience it is very useful to read the lives of the saints who endured great torments for Jesus Christ.”

St Padre Pio said, “I do not love suffering itself; I ask it of God because I desire its fruits: it gives glory to God, saves my brothers in exile, and frees souls from the fires of purgatory. God neither wants, nor is able, to save and sanctify us without the Cross. The more He calls a soul to Himself, the more He sanctifies it by means of the Cross. By suffering we are able to give something to God. The gift of pain, of suffering is a big thing and cannot be accomplished in Paradise. Lean on the Cross as Mary did. She was as if paralyzed before Her crucified Son, but was not abandoned by Him.”

St. Louis de Montfort said, “To suffer is not enough: the evil one and the world have their martyrs. We must suffer and carry our cross in the footsteps of Christ. Take advantage of little sufferings even more than great ones. God considers not so much what we suffer as how we suffer…”

St. Margaret Mary said, “The Heart of Jesus is closer to you when you suffer than when you are full of joy.”

St. Anthony Mary Claret said, “To suffer contempt in silence is the key to Jesus’ Heart and the means of uniting with Him.”

Saint Madeline Sophie Barat said, “Let us go to the foot of the Cross, and there complain—if we have the courage.”

Saint John Vianney said, “You must either suffer in this life or give up the hope of seeing God in heaven. Sufferings and persecutions are of the greatest avail to us, because we can find therein a very efficient means to make atonement for our sins, since we are bound to suffer for them either in this world or in the next.”

Saint John Bosco said, “Accept afflictions with patience. Silently endure cold and heat, wind and rain, fatigue and all other discomforts that God may deign to send to you.”

Several weeks ago, the Faith Formation Class on Wednesday watched a documentary on Servant of God Rhoda Wise from Canton, Ohio at our parish hall.

She was born in 1888 and died in 1948. She was a Protestant, who converted to the Catholic faith. She had severe health problems, but the Lord miraculously healed her. Not much later, after she was healed, the Lord gave Rhoda the stigmata, the wounds of Christ.

Rhoda would suffer the Passion of Jesus including her head bleeding as though a crown of thorns was placed on her head.

The evening we watched the video on Rhoda Wise, I had a migraine caused by arthritis in my neck. That night, when I went to bed, my head was throbbing terribly and I prayed to Rhoda Wise. I said, “Rhoda, please help me to accept my suffering.” When I said that prayer, the migraine immediately disappeared and I fell asleep. The Lord just wanted me to embrace the sufferings of it and then He took it away. I didn’t ask Jesus to take it away, He just did, because I accepted it.

Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us to carry our crosses manfully, keeping our eyes on Jesus, embrace them with love, uniting them to the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross, to make atonement for our sins and the sins of others, and offer them for the conversion of sinners. And in this way, we will not complain and will see them as precious gems to help us and others obtain heaven.