Suffering with Christ

On Oct. 22, we will celebrate the feast of Saint John Paul II. Many who are reading this column will have personal memories of his life, ministry and heroic witness. 

Not only did he bring renewed vigor and renewal to the life of the Church, especially with young people, but he also was a giant on the world stage, even contributing to the collapse of Soviet communism.

I have many fond memories associated with the years of Saint John Paul’s long pontificate. He was the pope when I was ordained a priest, he was the pope who named me a bishop, and I had the amazing privilege to meet him months before his passing into eternal life.

I cannot help but recall his infirm condition during the final years of his life when such an active and robust man who had survived an assassination attempt was reduced to a mere shadow of his former physical strength. 

And yet arguably, the greatest witness of his strength was in his dignified and patient self-offering during his long battle with Parkinson’s. In a world that flees from suffering and numbs out pain, Saint John Paul showed us the dignity inherent in every human life and the redemptive power of uniting oneself to Christ in every season of life.

In a certain sense, the Holy Father anticipated his own final witness with a powerful letter he wrote to the universal Church years before he began to live with the effects of his disease. In 1984, three years after surviving his assassination attempt, he authored the Apostolic Letter “Salvifici Doloris,” on the Christian meaning of human suffering, which was promulgated on the World Day of the Sick.

In this letter, the saintly pontiff spoke the truth of the Gospel into the midst of the inescapable reality of suffering. So often the reality of human suffering is given as a reason why many doubt the existence of a good and loving God. In a masterful way, Saint John Paul flips that strawman narrative on its head and demonstrates how suffering is the greatest indicator not only of our dignity but also of God’s abiding and redemptive presence with us.

He points out that God’s response to human suffering is not philosophical or abstract. It is not an argument or a syllogism. His response is to take on our frail humanity and to suffer with us. God did not desire suffering for the human family, rather it was our sin that brought suffering and death into God’s beautiful creation. But, God did not abandon us in our predicament. He has come to join us in the midst of it.

God will only allow suffering if he can use it for his good purposes. Instead of removing our suffering he chose to enter it with us and invite us to embrace it with him. He wants us to pick up our cross and follow him, to suffer with him for the redemption of the world. 

Our own sufferings are not good in and of themselves and God does not glory in what is grotesque, but he does permit it so that he can transform it. The ugliness and terror of suffering is made new by Christ’s sharing our suffering and enduring his own. Saint John Paul teaches that when we share Christ’s suffering, we carry a part of the world’s redemption within us. Uniting one’s suffering with that of Christ transforms into a priceless treasure what is a curse according to the world’s logic and calculations. 

The Christian who suffers is offered a powerful invitation from Christ to share in his passion. The true beauty and most compelling witness of the Church is not in its many artistic treasures or other accomplishments, but in the silent, holy lives of its faithful. 

This was brought home to me powerfully as I witnessed the sufferings and recent deaths of Archbishop Beltran, Father Joe Jacobi and Father Linh Bui whom the Lord allowed to share intimately in his sufferings and death. Each became an icon of Christ. 

In a particular way, I want to express my closeness and care for those who are living a season, especially a prolonged season, of suffering in body, mind or spirit. You are not forsaken. And you are not alone in your suffering or grief. You are seen and loved by Christ. 

In fact, he is so close to you that he is inviting you to live in union with his suffering flesh. I invite you to unite your suffering to Christ and to offer it for the conversion of sinners, especially for Catholics who are far from the Church. 

The spiritual value and power that such an act will have for the salvation of souls and the redemption of the world is immeasurable. Thank you for your offering. 

May God bless you and keep you as you walk with him into the new life he offers.