With the season of Lent on the horizon, we are
reminded to reflect on the mystery of suffering. Lent is an invitation, which particularly
calls us to journey with Christ on the path of the Paschal Mystery. In a world
filled with pleasure seeking and avoiding any type of suffering, this might
seem to be quite countercultural, or to the “good feeling pop-psychologist” it
may even be counterproductive, or even some form of masochistic downtrodden
depression. But, whatever the case, in
all honesty it is a bit odd. At least,
that is unless you know what you’re getting into. A few questions come to mind as Lent
approaches: why was redemption necessary?
Why did Jesus suffer? And what is
the point of suffering?
Redemption. This is where we must begin. But what are we being redeemed from? With the fall of man in the original sin of
Adam and Eve, they effectively isolated themselves from complete relationship
with God. Sin is a rejection of this
relationship with God because it presupposes that God’s relationship is not
good enough. Instead, Adam and Eve
wanted to make themselves gods. But even
in this ultimate rejection of God and ultimately his love, God did not give up
on human beings. This is where the
mystery of redemption comes into play. Things
were made wrong, and they need to be set right again. In this allegory from Genesis, the fall of
Adam and Eve could not have been a surprise for God. If it were, God would not be all knowing; he
would not be God. This forces us to ask
a further question, what then was the purpose of creation?
God
did not create us to be sinful failures.
God created us for quite the opposite reason: he created us to share in
his love. This love of God, is not some
happy feeling, it does not seek its own interests, it is entirely self-giving,
it is kenotic. Kenosis, is a Greek term
that means complete and total self emptying, and paradoxically, it is in this
emptying that one finds fulfillment.
Kenosis is the love of God between the Father and the Son, united in the
bond of the Holy Spirit; the Father completely gives of himself to the Son, and
the Son completely gives of himself to the Father. This is the basis of Trinitarian theology,
and I am by no means an expert, so I will not try to explain this mystery any
further. However, this is also where we
find the answer to our questions. In the
Paschal Mystery, we find this kenotic love articulated at its highest degree in
the course of human history. This event
happened in history, in time. That is,
this event of relationship between Father and Son, which encompasses all time,
has penetrated into chronological time and opened up for us a way to enter into
it.
The
field of Theological Anthropology tells us that the purpose for creation is for
participation in the Paschal Mystery.
Quite literally, we were made for the Paschal Mystery. Whether or not you agree with this statement,
let us explore some of the consequences that come with this statement, and
perhaps there we may encounter some answers to our questions. This statement begins to make sense when we
view it in light of the question of suffering.
We suffer because we are separated from God, and yet, suffering leads us
closer to God and eventually into the discovery of love. Suffering is not a sign of despair, it is a
sign of hope. Without suffering we would
have nothing to hope for. Without hope, there
would only be suffering.
It is the victory of
the cross, that we place our hope in. This
is the great mystery of all of history: that in complete freedom Jesus chose to
suffer and give of himself completely, so much so that he died, and by doing so
transcended death and opened up a new way, the way of resurrection. The first Adam ate from the tree of life and
rejected relationality. The second Adam,
Jesus, died on the tree of life and offered redemption to relationality. This “new way” the way of resurrection is the
way that we are to travel. Quite particularly,
the way of resurrection is the way of post-crucifixion. Jesus appeared to the Twelve bearing the
marks of his crucifixion. His glorified
body, bore the marks that made resurrected love possible. St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians
15:35-49) talks about this mystery of receiving the glorified body, in fact in
the way he speaks about it, it is a requirement for heaven. This presupposes that in some way we are all
destined to suffer with Christ and bear the marks of the cross. Perhaps this might explain why some saints
have experienced stigmata here on earth; they entered so profoundly into the
Paschal Mystery with Christ that they were able to experience beforehand what
awaited them in death, before entering into heaven.
Whatever the case, the
point of Jesus’ suffering was nothing short of the redemption of the
world. In Lent, we are called to reflect
on the suffering of Christ, with the hope of encountering a deeper
understanding of the mystery of redemption.
Our suffering is never a burden to be carried on our own, it is always a
suffering with. We suffer with Christ
because of sin: not only for our own sins, but for the effect of sin that we
feel from other’s sins. All sin has
consequences, some more than others, but in some way sin is always a furthering
of the broken relationship that we have with God. If sin is the destruction of relationality,
repentance and reconciliation is the embracing of relationality. This relationship can only be repaired
through choosing love. The choice is
ours. God has already gone before us and
prepared the way, we only have to choose it.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his book In
the Beginning… stated: “We can be saved only when he from whom we have cut
ourselves off takes the initiative with us and stretches out his hand to
us. Only being loved is being saved, and
only God’s love can purify damaged human love and radically reestablish the
network of relationships that have suffered from alienation” (Benedict XVI, pg
74).
So, as Lent approaches
let us prepare ourselves to reflect on the mystery of suffering. The Church asks us to enter into this mystery
by way of prayer, almsgiving, and mortification. The way we carry these out are up to us, but
in case you haven’t figured out in what way you are going to fulfill these
requests here are some easy options. Prayer:
challenge yourself to go to mass every day; pray a rosary every day; pray the Liturgy
of the Hours; make a holy hour, if not every day, perhaps you can challenge
yourself to once a week. Don’t set the
bar too high, because you will only set yourself up for failure. Start small, and don’t be afraid to exceed
your expectations when you feel called to.
Almsgiving: this is not just putting money in the collection basket on
Sunday, but you can put money in the poor box (this does not go to your parish
funds like the collection basket does), or I would encourage you to look up a
charity that stands for something you believe in and make a donation to
them. Mortification: this is more
usually carried out in the way of “giving up something for Lent.” But, it is not restricted to just giving
something up, you can carry this out in many ways. I don’t suggest wearing a hairshirt or
whipping yourself, but a more prudent way could be to fast regularly throughout
the season on different days of the week.
However you decide to
participate this Lent, always remember why you are doing this. There will be plenty of temptation to give up
and stop doing what you’re doing, but I encourage you to stay the course. In my life, in the years that I have
faithfully entered into Lent and authentically carried out my challenges of prayer,
almsgiving, and mortification, I have had the most fruitful Easters. The joy of the resurrection is worth the cost
of suffering that it takes to get there.
So let us not be afraid to walk with Christ in the coming weeks, in
order to prepare ourselves to experience more profoundly this year the love and
joy of God on Easter Sunday.
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