Why Me? Why, God?

Understanding the Deeper Meaning and Life-changing

Catholic Teaching on Redemptive Suffering

SESSION FOUR:
Taking Redemptive Meaning from Our Suffering

Why don't we begin as always with prayer and I'm going to read from
Paul's letter to the Colossians 1:24-28:
Let us place our self in the presence of almighty God, in whom we live
and move and have our being, as we call upon him in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And we, in a special way, remember the Holy Souls in Purgatory. So for
those dear ones to us, who've passed away this past year, we lift them
up in prayer at this time, and we also call to mind the saints in heaven
to pray for our loved ones and for us in order to make this time fruitful.

And I begin with Paul's letter to the Colossians:

"Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I
complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his
body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according
to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the
Word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and
generations, but now made manifest to his saints. To them, God
chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the
riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every
man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in
Christ."

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Lord, we ask for your guidance, your consoling Spirit, to enlighten us
tonight, to move in and among us, that we may make this time fruitful
and you may bless it; that we may use our sufferings, the large and the
small, for the redemption of the world, in cooperation with the fullness
of redemption in Christ. And we ask this through Christ our Lord. In the
name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Alright, our grand finale - don't have

high expectations - is tonight. The
first night we looked at "The
Problem of Evil" and we said that
suffering is the cause, or the result
rather, of the presence of evil; and
that suffering, in that regard, is not
bad. We're supposed to suffer
when evil is present.

The second night we looked at the redemption of Christ and how his
suffering has now opened the door for our suffering to be grace-filled.

Last week, we looked at the saints and what they have to teach us
about suffering and the prayers and the encouragement we receive
from them because of our communion with them.

So tonight our theme is “Taking Redemptive Meaning from Our

Suffering.” We're going to take what we've learned the last three
weeks and apply it to our own situation, our own lives. To sum up what
we've said up until now, I'm going to quote some passages from the
apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II called "Salvific Doloris", which
was written in 1984.

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Do any of you know why that might be significant? Why he would have
written this pastoral letter on suffering in 1984? Why might that be
significant?

Because he had been shot in 1981 and was laid up for some time; and
while he was lying in a hospital bed, he had a lot of time to think as I'm
sure that most people do. He chose this theme of suffering because he
understands that in our world, filled with suffering, and our lives have
plenty of it - for some maybe more than we wish we could have - and
so this was near and dear to his heart for obvious reasons. So, I'm going
to give some quotes from this letter, this exhortation of his, because it
summarizes nicely what we've said, especially in night two, when we
looked at Christ, but everything we've said so far.

Then I'm going to look at three

different responses to suffering:
1. We're going to look at when
we respond to suffering by
seeking it out and why we
would do such a thing.
2. And then, we're going to look
at when suffering seeks us out, what's our response?
3. And then, we're also going to talk about when we should avoid
suffering and how to do that.

Then we'll close with a little reflection on our Lady of Sorrows and
that'll be our evening.

Let's hear from John Paul II in Salvifici Doloris, his Apostolic Exhortation
on Suffering. He says this:

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 “In the Passion of Christ all human suffering has found itself in a
new situation. The Redeemer suffered in place of man and for
man. Each one is called to share in that suffering through which
redemption was accomplished.”

So that when Christ assumed all the

levels of suffering that we mentioned
in session two - physical, psychological,
spiritual - he was putting his divine
personhood and his saving grace in
those situations; so that there's not a
situation of pain, struggle, suffering
and/or toil, in which we can enter, that
has not been redeemed. This is why he
can honestly say to us, “I've been
there, I've done that and I'm there
with you in this moment.” No matter
how dark that moment may seem to us, he is there; and, if he's there,
and we encounter him there, then suffering for us becomes
transformative; it isn't useless.
I mentioned last week, how each of us are called to participate in the
Life of Christ in some way. Our priests are called to participate in Christ,
as the high priest. As lay people, we're called to participate in the
hidden life of Christ, as he lived at home and went to work with his dad
and learned a trade. Those who are called to religious life, and spend
their time in prayer, are deeply affiliated with his contemplative life.
Those who are missionaries and teachers are affiliated with his
preaching and teaching, and so on.

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But all of us are called to his
holiness. So, all of us are
inserted into the cross,
which is why he says, “pick
up your cross daily and
follow me” (Matthew
16:24). He leads the way.
So, in our crosses - large
and small - in our lives, we
share now in His
redemptive suffering. We
are incorporated into him
so that our lives now take on his meaning. This is why we, as Catholics,
can say we are co-redeemers with him. “Co” does not mean we're his
equals. It means that his redemptive power is so great, and he is so
generous, that it's super abundant and overflows into the finitude,
weakness, sinfulness and selfishness of our meager existences; and,
that now we're taken up into it, so that when we live in it, we are made
holy; and, as we shall see as we go through our talk tonight, can make
others holy too.

Now that's power! And that's good news when we're in the throes of
suffering. We may not feel happy about it, but it's good to know it
because our minds can cling to this truth even if our emotions are
battling sorrow, loss and anxiety, or maybe anger and bitterness and
doubt! In our hearts we can say: “Yes, I believe, Lord, that this can be
redemptive for me, even if I'm not feeling it right now.”

Then the Holy Father quotes 1 Corinthians 6:15:

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"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?"

We are members of him! This is why, in our existence and in our lives,
when we unite our lives with his, it takes on his meaning, because
we're members of him. Really.

In fact, that is why we call the Church his Mystical Body. Listen to what
St. Paul says here:
"I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I complete
what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the
Church" (Colossians 1:24).

I am rejoicing because I, in my suffering, am making up and completing

what is lacking in Christ. How can we complete or make up what is
lacking in the sufferings of Christ, if Christ is divine? That's a difficult
phrase. Certainly, he's not implying that there's some kind of defect or

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deficiency on Christ's side or a lacking in his divinity; he's not implying
that.

Rather, he is saying that "redemption, which is accomplished through

Christ’s satisfactory love, remains always open (and here I'm quoting
Pope St. John Paul II again) to all love expressed in human suffering.

Thus redemption has been accomplished, on the one hand, while at the
same time is always being accomplished."

Let me repeat this. It means that redemption accomplished through

Christ's satisfactory love remains always open to all love expressed in
human suffering. And hence, we can speak of redemption as being
accomplished on Calvary on one hand, and on the other hand, how it is
being accomplished now in our lives - yours and mine.

Whenever we love, and suffer

through that love, and
experience suffering because of
love, it is the saving power of
Christ that is now spilling over,
through our hearts, into that
situation; his grace is now ever
flowing - streams of living water
(John 7:38) - and it transforms us
while we transform one another
and even society. This is why
Saint Paul says “I'm making up
this lacking in the afflictions of
Christ for your sake.” In other
words, my suffering is helping

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you because we are one body, we're knit together, members of Christ -
so that this redemption, completed by Christ, lives on in its own special
way as it develops in the history of man.
Thus as it develops in our history - "for the sake of the body" is the
explanation for that sentence – Paul’s suffering, that happened after
Christ's redeeming offering - is now affecting the Colossians and
whomever else, including us.

I mentioned to you last week, that perhaps we're here and have our
faith, because someone, somewhere, offered up suffering and God
applied it to you and to me. This is the power that it has. This is its
beauty. This is its magnitude. This is its nobility and maturity.

We, as Christians, are called to Christian maturity, are we not? We are

called, not to always do as we feel like doing. Because of the fall, we're
dominated by our passions, and we feel like doing sinful things. That's
concupiscence, that's the effect of the fall still at work in us even after

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baptism, even after the sacraments, we still have this tendency to do
evil.

Maturity means we do not do as we feel like doing, but rather we do as

we ought, in spite of how we feel. When we embrace suffering,
whether it's sought out voluntarily or it seeks us out, it's an act of the
will. Its saying: “I am willing, Lord, to endure this as I ought for the sake
of you and your Body, the Church; for the sake of souls.”

This is why St. Therese and St. Pio (Padre Pio) suffered, and agreed to
suffer - they were victim souls; they were suffering for the conversion
of hardened sinners; and the Lord approached them mystically and
asked them to do this because he wants us to appreciate the
theological and spiritual depth of this new meaning of our suffering,
that it is a new thing for humanity; a wonderful, new thing. Jesus said:
“Behold, I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5).

“In suffering there is concealed a particular power that draws a person

interiorly closer to Christ. In discovering the salvific meaning of
suffering, that person becomes interiorly a new person” (Pope St. John
Paul II).
How many people have we known, that when they have endured some
terrible suffering, have found faith? And we say that he/she was
changed through that experience; maybe they battled cancer and got
better; or maybe they're battling cancer and not getting better, but we
see a change interiorly in them ; or they had some other illness or an
injury, or even a job loss for a prolonged period of time, but turned to
the Lord rather than the bottle or despaired; and we see them, and we
see a change, a positive change, inwardly.

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This is what the Holy Father means. We become interiorly a new
person, in our interior lives. Somehow, we encounter Him in our
suffering and when we encounter Him, we are changed and we're
given his strength and his beauty.

So, these are just some meditations from Pope St. John Paul II. Through
them we can now see the beauty and the significance in Christ of our
suffering. We can now make sense out of this passage, mysterious
though it may be, in St. Paul's letters to the Colossians 1:24 and
following.
And this is why the church recommends that we voluntarily take on
suffering from time to time (as a form of penance), not major suffering.
I'm talking about fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, observing
meatless Fridays. We've already mentioned our parents telling us to
“offer it up” when we were growing up. Also, fasting for other reasons,
giving up things for Lent and Advent and outside of those seasons - the
Church has always recommended this.

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1ST Type of Suffering: VOLUNTARY SUFFERING

We're going to talk now, shift our focus, to this idea of voluntary
suffering, suffering that we seek. Now in all of these cases, we're not
talking about the seriousness of deadly diseases or the pain of loss of a
loved one. I'm not talking about seeking those things out. I'm talking
about these little mortifications, to mortify. You know that word? It
comes from the Latin word "mortise." What does mortise mean in
Latin? It means “death.”
So, we're talking about mortifying ourselves, putting to death
something in us that needs to die.

Let's listen to Saint Paul in his Letter to the Romans 8:13

"For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you
put to death the deeds of the flesh you will live".

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If we put to death, by the power of God and the Holy Spirit, the deeds
of the flesh, we will live. He also says in 1 Corinthians 9:27:
"I pommel and subdue my body, lest I too be cast aside in the end.”

He says that in the context of comparing heaven with a metaphor of

athletics; of a race in the Olympic games. And he's saying that he
pommels and subdues his body, lest he be cast aside. He doesn't mean
that he is literally punching himself in the face. He means that he is
seeking little, voluntary mortifications, little sufferings, little penances,
because in so doing it purifies him and it will purify us too, if we do the
same thing.
We are called to do this as he says elsewhere in Romans 8:17:
"It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are
children of God and so we cry out Abba, Father; and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with
him in order that we may also be glorified with him".

Suffering is going to be an essential ingredient for us. We can't escape it

anyway, no matter how hard we try to make our lives comfortable,
we're not going to escape suffering. Even when we're too comfortable,
we're going to suffer because we're too comfortable. We have too
many goods so we're going to suffer because we're just not happy so
we have sorrow now. We're not going to escape it.

These little voluntary penances – mortifications - that I'm talking about;

the kinds of sufferings that the Saints like St. Pio and St. Therese loved,
are the kinds that purify us of our selfishness.

It helps us to see that the uselessness of suffering is overcome so that

we can even seek it, on purpose, out of love. Troy mentioned last week

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that two of the greatest sufferings that Therese and Pio endured were
these temptations to doubt, especially Saint Therese of Liseux. They
weren't the only saints to endure these, but Therese mentioned how
for 10 years, from age 14, until her death, she had these terrible
temptations of doubt and received no consolation at all, whatsoever,
just darkness.

St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) endured that situation for forty
years. You might think, “Oh my gosh, how could you do that? Why does
anyone want to be a saint if that's what we're looking forward to?
Never forget:
1. Not all are called to this type of severe suffering, not every saint is
called to it.

2. But secondly, and most importantly, if we look at it again, we see

that they had the strength to endure and there is no way that
their strength was their own. That's a mistake we make when we
look at another person’s suffering. We think, “Well, how am I
going to endure that?” You're not; you don't have the strength.
Don't worry about it. If it becomes your lot; if Christ leads you to
that, when you're there, he'll give you the strength and it will be
his strength you receive.

And what happened to these saints when they were enduring these
pains?

They were purified because they were experiencing the pure, clear,
powerful, selfless love of Christ on the cross, pouring out his love and
his mercy for humanity and they were able to overcome their self-focus
and become other-focused – in imitation of Christ as He received

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nothing - he received nails, a crown of thorns, beatings, mockings,
spittle and he gave his all anyway.
When we take on little tiny sufferings - giving up chocolate, giving up
things even outside of Lent, little fastings, fasting from TV maybe (this
might be a good year to fast from the Chiefs, I don't know just a
thought) and offer it up and instead pray or read our scripture, study
our faith in its place, that little thing helps purify our love too, it helps
us overcome our selfishness.

The benefits far outweigh the suffering, because he says in the next
verse when he mentions suffering with Christ so that we would be
glorified with him in chapter eight of Romans 8:18,
"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

So, no matter how bad our sufferings are in this life, when we see the
glory that awaits us, they will not be comparable. The glory that awaits
us is far better; and, the worse our suffering is, we can have faith, the
greater our crown of glory will be, because he is a generous God.

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All of us are going to suffer, and if we embrace it, and offer it up to him,
we now participate in Christ’s sufferings. And what St. Paul says in
Colossians, we're building up the mystical body; we're purifying
ourselves and we're disciplining our fallen flesh, that is ruled by the
passions, ruled by concupiscence.

When we deny ourselves something, something we may have a perfect

right to - an extra scoop of ice cream, the most comfortable chair in the
house, cream in the coffee - we are being purified. There is grace there,
in these little things. What made St. Therese a Doctor of the Church
was not her great suffering, but her writings where she emphasized
what she called her Little Way. And her little way was simple - little acts
done with great love; acts of charity for people - a smile when you want
to frown, little mortifications that I've mentioned, internal mortification
- disciplining our thoughts - I'm going to talk about that when we get to
anxiety. Disciplining our appetites through temperance. Disciplining our
tongue with complaining and gossip.

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And so on, disciplining our eyes in what we allow in and what we gawk
at and not gawk at, we can practice these as well. And so we put on the
perfection of Christ when we do this.

Do you see what He's done?

He hasn't replaced suffering; rather, he's redeemed it. And he's left it
in place because, now, when we enter into it, we enter into him in the
most profound way that we can this earth.

And so, when we take these little crosses, voluntarily picking them up
daily to follow Him, we are enjoying the maturity of our faith as
Christians. We're enjoying this new depth of our nobility, this new
maturity, this new strength. We're overcoming the desire, the broken
desire for immediate sensible gratification and showing the faith we
have that we're willing to venture that for what's behind door number
two, which is heaven. We're willing to do that.

I've got this opportunity for immediate gratification and I'm willing to
forgo that for the greater reality that I believe is coming for me in
heaven. And it becomes for me, not only an act of suffering, of
voluntary renunciation or mortifications, but also an act of Faith. I really
believe that if I give up this good thing, no matter how small, with great
love, that I'm gaining more of him (God) in heaven. I'm clearing out one
little speck of my heart, covered with selfishness, for him to enter in so
that he can expand my heart. And then I can receive more of him there.

So this answers our first night's discussion well, “The Problem of Evil.”
We see why a loving God, who's all powerful and all good would allow
it - because of what comes from it. And if we say, yes, Troy, I hear you
but I still lack courage. I still lack the desire for that. Well, take up what
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part of that cross you can carry and he'll carry the rest, but he's going to
call you to imitate him more and more because it is a process of growth
and expansion.

Alright. So that's it for sufferings that we seek. Any questions on that?

From the class: Is this unique to Catholics?

Troy: I'm not sure, but I think that it is. I've never heard of redemptive
suffering mentioned with non-Catholic Christian friends of mine and
family members of mine. I think this is unique to us, but I could be
wrong cause I don't know for sure. But it's the power that we need to
harness and take advantage of and not be afraid of. His grace is there.

Other questions? No>

Then let's look at our next segment…

2nd Type of Suffering: SUFFERINGS THAT WE DO NOT SEEK

Sufferings that we do not seek, sufferings that find us. And sometimes,
that's what makes them the most difficult. We didn't seek them out, we
weren't prepared for them and we get blindsided because usually these
can be very major and they can cause a great deal of pain, very serious
pain.
And part of the difficulty is the fact that we didn't seek it out, it sought
us out. And sometimes we think “Why, God? Why me? I didn't ask for
this. It seems unfair.” But hopefully with what we've said up to now, we
can see why; and, at the same time, can hear the voice of our human
fathers who say "whoever said life was fair?"

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Life is not fair. This life is the Vale of Tears. So, God allows this, as I said,
he does not remove but redeems our suffering; so, even these major
sufferings that can hit us, the most serious kinds: the suffering of
innocence, loss of loved ones, bouts of serious disease, financial
hardship, ongoing strain in relationships, or some combination of any of
those -these are allowed by him for a better reason than we can realize.

It must mean that only a great good can come from this. Furthermore,
the heavier the cross the more powerful the grace available to us.

We can offer these sufferings for others, as I've said, and let us do that.
Let us not let them slip by, offer them. There's a lot that's wrong in our
world. There's also a lot that's right. We can't let the problems seem
insurmountable. We need to look at the means that Christ is giving us
right now, today, and use them to sanctify the world and the patient
endurance of suffering is the most powerful way to do that, along with
prayers and sacraments.
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It is the most powerful. If we're praying and receiving the sacraments,
then we are able to offer it up to him. If we're not praying and not
receiving the sacraments, we're not going to have the wherewithal and
the capacity to unite it with him. So, I do want to preface what I say
about suffering with those remarks. Our daily meditation and the
frequent reception of the sacraments are essential for us to get the
most profound meaning out of our suffering. But if we do that, then we
will see how profound it is.

And so these sufferings bring redemptive value in our own lives

conforming us more closely to Christ, but also can actually save others
from damnation.

That is the most important reason why the saints we looked at last
week agreed to suffer the way they did. They thoroughly believed that
they were cooperating with Christ in his invitation to unite themselves
closely with him so that he would radiate and mediate his saving grace

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through them, to others who otherwise would be condemned. And this
is his will for us too, because we are in his Body as the Holy Father said
in first Corinthians chapter six - our bodies are members of Christ.
Let me read to you in first Corinthians chapter 12 to drive this point
home, 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, 25-26:

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the
members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit". Verse 14, "For
the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should
say "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would
not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body" that would not
make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where
would be the sense of smell? But (verse 18) as it is, God arranged the
organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If we were all a
single organ where would the body be? (verse 20) as it is, there are
many parts, yet one body".
I'm going to skip down here, he's got quite a bit here. I want to read
verse 26. Oh back up to verse 25.
"But God has so adjusted the body, giving the greater honor to the
inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the
members may have the same care for one another. If one member
suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice
together".

So we are one body, our sufferings, our pains, and our glories are
shared because the one in the same Spirit fills us all and draws us into

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Christ as we are members of his body, we really are a Mystical Body
that's why we receive the Mystical Body of Christ in the Eucharist.

And this is the benefit we have - in being in his Mystical Body in the
fullness of his Church - that we can benefit one another by making up
what is lacking in his Christ. That's why Saint Paul says, “I rejoice in my
sufferings.” I rejoice - using joy and suffering in the same sentence -
because he sees this so clearly. We are knit together, united; and, "God
does not permit unnecessary suffering," Saint Therese was fond of
saying. He does not permit that.

And so another quote here from Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 12,
"I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God", this is verse
one, "to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual worship".

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Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. We can offer up our whole
lives. We are now priests in Christ's one priesthood. In St. Paul's letter
to the Romans 12:4 "For as in one body we have many members, and
all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many,
are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."

So these sufferings, whether they're voluntary or involuntary, large or

small, receive this new clarity. It's given to us, not just for our own
good, but for the good of loved ones. If we have loved ones who are
out of the church, we can offer these things up for them. If we're
worried about problems that seem out of our control, we can offer
these things up for those problems. If we're concerned about poverty in
remote regions, same thing.

Now, one final point to be made on this suffering, and I'm going to read
here from a priest named Jacques Philippe in a wonderful book called
"Searching for and Maintaining Peace." He says this,

"There are inevitably circumstances where we cannot understand the

“why” of God's activity because it is no longer the “wisdom of man,” a
wisdom within our capacity to understand and explain by human
intelligence. Rather, it is “divine wisdom,” mysterious and
incomprehensible, that thus intervenes. And happily we cannot
understand. If we could understand it, then we'd always be operating
on our own powers.”

There will be times we will incur sufferings that we will not understand,
the pain of which will seem unbearable. Although, St. Paul says Christ
never gives us a cross so big we cannot carry it. But inevitably, there
will be something that's going to knock us off our feet. Do not worry -

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instead trust. He will show you when the time is right, the purpose and
the meaning.

But in this life, we're not going to be able to understand the purpose
and the meaning of all of those crosses. We just know that it is a cross
and that it is redemptive. And we pray for that faith, that if and when
that cross comes our way, we will withstand and be able to carry it.
Lord, increase our Faith!

So any questions then on suffering which we do not seek and how to

respond?

From the class: Since suffering is redemptive, when we pray for

someone, to relieve their suffering, is that all we have to do?

From Troy: Good question. Excellent question. No, because we still are
called, in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, to care for others
who don't always have the wherewithal to carry the cross; but, even if
they do, praying for them and doing what we can to relieve their
suffering is itself another way of receiving that redemptive power of
Christ. As when Jesus was hanging on the cross, the Centurions felt
sorry for him and they give him the sponge soaked in gall, which was a
narcotic, and touched it to his lips to ease his suffering, and he
appreciated that. He accepted that, not to limit the power of the cross,
but to let them offer some act of love, because we still recognize that
we're human and frail. And so we're serving that end of the suffering,
the frailty, which we all have.
So, it doesn't counteract or undermine the value of the suffering. But,
so the suffering that the person is enduring, can still attain to the
fullness of the value God wishes to give it, and that in addition, “it is

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reckoned to us as righteousness” (Romans 4:22) by offering that act of
love, because we recognize the frailty of our own humanity.

Any other questions? Excellent question.

From the class: Who all is a part of the Mystical Body of Christ?

Troy: All the baptized, but especially those who receive him in Holy
Communion, who are in full communion with the Church. That's why
we call it that. All Christians share communion, albeit imperfect,
because all Christians are baptized, but those who are confirmed and
receive Holy Communion are confirmed and received into the fullness
of that Mystical Body. And thus, we have at our disposal, all the graces
necessary to be fully conformed to Jesus. We will lack nothing except
our yes, which we have to give, to his will; but we will lack nothing from
his end to become a saint, the saint we're called and created to be.

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From the class: Let's say that I have an illness that gives me great pain,
so I want to offer it up. Please walk me through the steps or what I
would say, how do I do that?

Troy: It is a mere act of the will. “Lord, I offer this with you.” That's it.
To will it. He won't force it because we're already incorporated into him
through baptism and the sacraments. The only thing left to remain for
full incorporation is our will - our yes, as I said.
So, if we're experiencing it, all we have to do is will it. And he even
accepts what's called VIRTUAL INTENTIONS. That is, if you were
thinking about it at the time, you would have intended it.
So maybe you're getting operated on, and then you're on anesthesia
and you're out and you forgot to say, “Lord I'm offering all this up you
know for reparation for sin or whatever.” And then you come to, and
you're fine. He recognizes the intention, the virtual one that we carry
forth.
That's why it's good, if you remember, back in those old Baltimore
catechism days, to pray The Morning Offering. Don't forget that. That's
a way to make the offering the first thing in the morning, to offer up
everything that day; you've made that intention and now if you don't
remember as the day wears on, you don't have to worry about it
because you've already intended it. And you can carry forth into your
day your share in the priesthood of Christ, as a lay person, offering
yourself to Christ as living sacrifices. That's the purpose of The Morning
Offering - to call to mind that we are living sacrifices each and every
day in order to offer ourselves up - all the good, the bad, the joys, etc.

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From the class: How can you help me understand about people who
are not baptized, who don't believe in God, who belong to other
religions? How can we understand God and suffering in these person’s
life?

Troy: The power of suffering can still redeem and rescue them. The
church talks about The Baptism of Desire. Her question was how do we
understand those who are not baptized? And how do they relate to
suffering? The church talks about Baptism of Desire and only God can
see this, but a person who through no fault of his or her own, who is
not baptized; but, with the means that they have to discover God, they
seek him; and, to the level that they do seek, is to the level that they
can be baptized by their own desire. And suffering can do that for
them. They can endure it and experience it and that can become for
them a kind of baptism of their desire that brings them in.

Now how easy this is to happen, how often, I don't know, I just know
it's possible. And I figured that's his business.

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One last question then I'll finish my talk and then we'll have more
questions at the end.

From the class: I thought that within the Mystical Body of Christ, that
yes, those in full communion definitely in the body, but we also had our
separated brethren (protestants) in a mystical life, were still members
of the mystical body, as well as those that didn't believe that were not
Christian in a mystical way because they do believe in a supreme being.

Troy: The Church teaches that all baptized, Protestant or otherwise,

have some communion with the Mystical Body of Christ. With terms of
the non-baptized, they have to be baptized, it has to come in the form
of the baptism of desire that would bring them into some communion.

From the class: So their belief in Buddha or a god, or like the Greeks,
you know, they believed in the unknown God.

Troy: Yeah. How well or how able those beliefs are to save them? I
don't know. I don't know. We know that it's possible, but how
probable? I don't know.

Alright, let me close then with one last thing.

3rd Type of Suffering: SUFERINGS THAT WE OUGHT TO AVOID

Sufferings we ought to avoid. Yes, there are some sufferings we ought

to avoid and I've already mentioned it. These are the sufferings caused
by anxiety, worry, stress, that disturb the peace of our hearts. We need
to avoid these because when our heart loses its peace, we lose the

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ability to receive the gentle inspirations of God, which we need and we
don't realize how much we thrive on those.

So, I'm going to read another passage from St. Paul, this is his Letter to
the Philippians 4:4-8. He says this:
"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say Rejoice. Let all men know
your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your
requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all
understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is

just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there's
any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things."

You see the key to avoiding anxiety and the suffering that stress us out,
is to control our thoughts, and he knows this. If we want to be at peace
and not having anxiety, we need to pray. We need to trust and we need
to control our thoughts.

I don't know about you, but when I think about the future, I'm
inevitably filled with dread, whether it's politics, economics, spiritual,
personal, relational, there's always worries there. Montaigne, that
famous French philosopher said:

"My life is filled with worries, 5% of which actually occur".

We worry about 95% of the things, in his opinion, that never even
happened. But we look at the future. We prognosticate. We put

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ourselves there in the future when we're not there yet, and we begin
worrying because we think we're going to have to rely and endure on
our own strength.

And now, from what has been said tonight - I hope I've made it clear -
we don't rely on our own strength; we rely on his. He knows we're
weak, which is why we pray for and assist those who are suffering
because of human weakness – we don’t just tell them to offer it up and
not help them. But, He gives us the strength and He will be with us in
the moment, in the present moment.

We don’t live in the future, it's not here yet. How can He be there when
it's not real yet, nor in the past, same reason, only in the present. This is
what he's created. This is what he calls us to. We need to control our
thoughts. Think about these glorious things mentioned verses eight and
nine and rejoice because he has overcome the world and the
strongman and we can have faith in this. And even if we don't have
strong faith, we can respond with our dinky, little meager faith and he

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will strengthen that if we ask him to, but he's going to challenge us to
step forward and continue to stretch us so we can fully mature.

I close tonight with a reflection of Our Lady of Sorrows, to sum up and

to bring to the climax our talks on suffering. Our Lady suffered the kind
of suffering that most of us as parents fear, the suffering of the
innocence of our little ones. You see she said yes to the will of God
even when it became clear to her that that meant that her son would
die, that he would be tortured. She watched; she watched him undergo
this pain. And the only possible way she could have endured that is
because she had the faith of the greatest of saints. Indeed, the faith of
a mother, the mother of God and the trust. She stood there at the cross
and watched until his body, limp and forsaken, was taken down and
held him and beheld him. And now she understands. If our suffering
comes from watching the pain of others suffer, come to her, she knows.
Go to Mary and she can help us.

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Let's close with prayer. And then I'll take questions.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our
hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we
send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn,
then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and
after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O holy Mother of
God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen. In
the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Any questions?

From the class: What if people just did nothing more than suffer or if
they didn't make a conscious effort to say I offer this suffering? What if
they just laid there in the hospital bed and suffered and did nothing
else.

Troy: The invitation that Christ would be bringing him from that
suffering would force him to make a choice. “I accept, I'm recognizing
you, Lord” or “I'm not.” I don't think it's possible for us as the baptized
especially, to suffer uselessly and without recognizing the invitation
that's there, even if we haven't made the explicit choice. Now, we may
not have realized it, but he has his way of getting into our soul even if
we're laying there without realizing it.

Reminds me of that famous saying of Gale Sayers, the Kansas Tornado,

he used to say, “All I need is six inches of daylight.” Meaning if his

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blockers could give him that much space, he could squeak through it
and be gone for a touchdown.
I think God only needs about maybe six millimeters, “all I need is six
millimeters of daylight.” So even in that situation, if we gave any little
hint of opening to receive the invitation that Christ is offering us in that
moment, without even our awareness, He can enter in and bring about
the fruits. And someone asked last week, if we could offer up sufferings
of the past. And I don't see why not? God's outside of time, he can
foresee that we weren't thinking about that then or didn't have the
wherewithal to ask for it at that time. So ask now. Why not?

From the class: And also, someone who has terrible physical suffering
they have to say every day, “I accept this and I'm going to rely on you,
Jesus, to give me the strength in my suffering and accept what you have
given me to do.” It's not just a onetime thing.
Troy: It's not a onetime thing. Pick up the cross daily.

Any other questions?

From the class: Mother Angelica used to say, don't waste it.

Troy: Yeah, don't waste the suffering.

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