(Ngayon po, September 14, ipinagdiriwang ang Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Ang sumusunod po ay repost ng isinulat ko noong 2007, sa isa ko pang blog, . Maligayang kapistahan sa lahat!)
4. THE CROSS AND HUMAN
SUFFERING
A friend of mine once observed
that there is much poetry in Catholicism.
He was referring to the wealth of imagery in the Catholic Faith. This could be said also of Judaism and of
other Christian groups, but perhaps it is more pronounced in the Roman Catholic
Church. The observation comes to mind
because today, September 14, is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,
logically followed tomorrow, September 15, by the memorial of Our Lady of
Sorrows: “standing by the cross of Jesus, his mother”. (Jn 19:25) The cross is probably the most utilized image
in catholic liturgy.
Even before the time of our
Lord, the cross must have already been a metaphor for suffering, at least
within the Roman Empire, where crucifixion was precisely the gravest penalty
for crime. From the time of our Lord,
however, to us, Christians, the cross has meant not just suffering, but
“redemptive suffering”.
Suffering is integral to
human nature, not only to our “wounded” human nature but also to our authentic human
nature, not least because man is spiritual soul and material body. The human body, like all matter, is destined
to disintegration; hence the inexorable march towards the wrenching agony of
the separation of body and soul which is death.
While Adam and Eve enjoyed
freedom from suffering before the original sin, it was by way of a
“preternatural gift”, i.e., a good beyond the nature of the human creature, although
not beyond the nature of the totality of creation (in the same way that “immortality”
is beyond human nature but “natural” to purely spiritual creatures like the
angels). When they turned away from God,
Adam and Eve lost all their “gifts” and could only transmit to us, their
descendants, what was their “nature”, a damaged or wounded human nature at
that.
- The Redemption accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ brings humanity into “intimacy with God”, actualized individually by grace with the free cooperation of man. But while we now enjoy this “supernatural gift” (beyond the nature of all creatures), its definitive fulfillment for each of us, including liberation from suffering and death, would take place in eternity.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did
not remove suffering from the life of man on earth. Rather, He made it the very means of salvation,
of our sanctification. We benefit from
the Redemption accomplished by our Lord in so far as we are united with
Him. We must learn to unite our own sufferings
with that of our Lord.
It is of course good, nay,
laudable, to alleviate or remove suffering, our own and others’, in so far as suffering
consists in the absence or privation of a good, as long as our action does not
constitute a turning away from our ultimate good. But it is best, for the sake of that highest
good, to embrace suffering. Thus, we can
face with Christian cheerfulness the unavoidable setbacks and difficulties of
each day. We can also actively seek
opportunities for self-denial, for love of God and neighbor, in many little
things that do not really harm ourselves nor inconvenience others, and which
could pass unnoticed.
Suffering is an
indispensable condition for our entrance into eternal happiness. “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Lk 9:23ff; cf. Mt
16:24; Lk 14:27) Thus, the Church
teaches: “The way of perfection passes
by way of the Cross. There is no
holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” (CCC, No. 2015)
True, our Lord raised
several persons from the dead, healed many sick and fed the hungry multitudes;
but these must be seen as manifestations of His mercy and proofs of His
Divinity, not as the inauguration of a world liberated from suffering. In fact, after feeding the five thousand men,
“when Jesus perceived that they would come to take him by force and make him
king, he fled again to the mountain” (Jn 6:15).
Our Lord did not come to bring
political or economic liberation on earth.
The “messianic declaration”—“to bring good news to the poor he has sent
me” (Lk 4:18) — “is to be understood mainly in a spiritual, transcendental
sense” (The Navarre Bible, Note at passage).
It was precisely the Jews’ materialistic and earthbound reading of this quote
from the prophet Isaiah (61:1ff) which blinded them from recognizing Jesus of
Nazareth as the Messiah. Let us not be
misled by parties or movements that promise to eliminate poverty, injustice,
suffering, from the life of man in the world.
St. Josemaria writes: “The happiness of us poor men, even when it
has supernatural motives, always leaves a bitter aftertaste. What did you expect? Here on earth, suffering is the salt of our
life.” (The Way, No. 203) But also:
Is it not true that, as soon as you cease
to be afraid of the Cross, of what people call the cross, when you set your
will to accept the Will of God, then you find happiness, and all your worries,
all your sufferings, physical or moral, pass away? Truly, the Cross of Jesus is gentle and
lovable. There, sorrows cease to count;
there is only the joy of knowing that we are co-redeemers with Him. (The Way of
the Cross, Second Station)
(14 September 2007)
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