Mother Teresa (Suffering)

The Innocent Suffering - 

"All that suffering-where would the world be without it? Innocent suffering is the same as the suffering of Jesus. He suffered for us and all the innocent suffering is joined to his in the redemption. It is co-redemption. That is helping to save the world from worse things."

Suffering is a gift - 
 Like all gifts, it depends on how we receive it. And that is why we need a pure heart to see the hand of God, to feel the hand of God, to recognize the gift of God in our suffering. He allows us to share in his suffering and to make up for the sins of the world."

Wasting suffering - 
"The important thing, is not to waste suffering. Join it to the suffering of Christ; offer it up with his suffering. Don't waste suffering ."

To Die daily to self...... -
"Lord, help us to see , in your crucifixion and resurrection, an example of how to endure and seemingly to die, in the agony and conflict of daily life, so that we might live more fully and more creatively.... Enable us to go through trials patiently and bravely, trusting that you will support us; for it is only by dying with you that we can raise with you. Amen."


And from Mother Teresa's mentor - St. Francis of Assisi...  
"This is perfect joy - to share in the sufferings of the world as Christ did."



Source: http://www.suffering.net/servmo-t.htm
Diverse articles on suffering: http://www.suffering.net/detail.htm#theresa

Unearned Suffering is Redemptive

Who do you think said that?  This is a re-post so maybe you will even remember the right answer?

Pope Benedict?
My parish priest?

St. Augustine?

No, no and no again. (Actually, they may well have said this but I am referring to someone else. A Protestant, actually)

The person who said it would have made a darn good Catholic! (a personal note here to Jo -- no, it wasn't Matt!)


It was said by a man who was killed in 1968.
It was said by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (in his I Have a Dream speech -- at about the 11:36 minute mark)

 

This man had a dream that (among many things) one day Protestants and Catholics would stand hand in hand against injustice. (minute marker 17:05)


King’s life and struggle embodied our church’s social teaching, and how his memory presents us today with a challenge to carry on the struggle against racism, poverty and war wherever they exist.

Full transcript and partial video clip here.










SOURCES:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Offering It Up

Pope Benedict reflected on the practice of “offering it up” in Spe Salvi.

There used to be a form of devotion—perhaps less practiced today, but quite widespread not long ago—that included the idea of ‘offering up’ the minor daily hardships that continually strike at us like irritating ‘jabs’, When we offer these things (and other hardships) up we can give them a meaning, live every moment in praise and communication with our God and increase our humility.

When I was younger I did not understood what that meant: "Offer it up."
But now I think I understand, at least a bit more. And it gives purpose, reason, dignity to suffering we experience.
I still remember Scott Hanhn's comments about this. He lead us straight to the Bible.
In Colossians 1:24,  St. Paul tells the Colossians --

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church . . . "

Of course, there definitely have been some exaggerations and even unhealthy applications of this devotion in the past. It is stating the obvious that some people - maybe - just don't quite get it.   Self flagellation has long been a  "joke" about Roman Catholics by others.    I think the joke and the perpetuation of the stereotype is cruel and serves no positive purpose.  OK, OK, I have a confession to make . . . . . I admit, have laughed at Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the pseudo monks hit themselves in the head as they chant. It is just so silly & I think that's why it tickles me. But the stereotypes like those in The Da Vinci Code  really offend me!

What does it mean to offer something up?
It means to do what St. Paul did -- rejoice in our sufferings for other's sake, and know that in our flesh we are filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ* on behalf of his body, which is the church.

Notice that there is nothing in that passage that encourages us to create suffering for ourselves. Even out Protestant brother, Marin Luther King, Jr. seems to have understood this.  He said, "Unerring suffering is redemptive."

We can offer our pain and even little annoyances into Christ’s great ‘com-passion’ (to 'suffer with')  so that they can became part of the treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race. In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of human love.


Footnote * 
This in NO way diminishes Christ's suffering for us. He died once and for all.
As Scott Hahn explains it (and, of course, I am paraphrasing) Christ's death and resurrection made it possible for us to participate in filling up what is lacking on behalf of his body, which is the church.

Suffering

I have been thinking a lot about suffering.

http://www.davidmacd.com/catholic/why_catholics_love_suffering.htm

The above web page is very nice because it lays out the common evangelical questions and then explains the Catholic answer and explanation. I particularly like how the web page does this through such sources as scripture references, the CCC and, interestingly enough, evangelical authors.

The Catechism says this:

Moved by so much suffering Christ not only allows himself to be touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases." But he did not heal all the sick. His healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the "sin of the world," of which illness is only a consequence. By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion. (1505)

Suffering Simplified

H/T: A Concord Pastor Comments

The Cup of Suffering & The Path to Life

Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?" John 18:11

Peter tried to ward off the sufferings that Jesus had to face, and Jesus scolds him for it.
For Jesus, this "cup" is the entire passage through suffering, through death, to the fullness of human life with God. It is all one piece. And Jesus accepts it as all one piece -- giving his entire life to God.

When we drink from the cup at Eucharist, this same meaning is there for us. We join with the Lord as he gives himself entirely to God. Today, tomorrow. . .whatever difficulties and sufferings we might face . . our death. . all this is one piece, part of our own passage into the fullness of human life.

Picture yourself holding the cup at Eucharist and saying,

"O God, by drinking this cup I join with your Son. With Him I place myself entirely in Your hands. Whatever lies before me -- the joys and sorrows, and one day my death -- I accept. In your hands it is all one piece: The path to life."

source: The Little Black Book (Six minute meditations according to John)

Fast and Abstinence: In Perspective...

Yolen Jenuky sells mud cookies in Cite Soleil, the poorest section of Haiti's capitol city, Port au Prince.

Thank you to A Concord Pastor Comments. This is his post - it was so moving and informative that I have posted it here in its entirety.

Fast and Abstinence In Lent
All Christians are called to special prayer, fasting and caring for the poor in the season of Lent. Each person determines how he or she will personally live out these ancient Lenten exercises. In addition to personal Lenten practices, Catholics are also called to a communal practice of self-denial through fasting and abstinence.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau. The mud has long been used by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings, and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal. "When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds, 3 ounces, he weighed at birth. Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky, too," she said.

Ash Wednesday Is a Day of Fast and Abstinence
On Ash Wednesday, Catholics over 14 years of age are expected to abstain from eating meat on this day. Catholics 18 years of age and up to the beginning of their 60th year are expected to fast: taking only one full meal and two other light meals, eating nothing between meals.

Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher prices for oil, which is needed for fertilizer, irrigation, and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well. The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places… At the market in the La Saline slum, a two-cup portion of rice now sells for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk, and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say. Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared with food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.

All the Fridays of Lent Are Days of Abstinence
Catholics over 14 years of age are expected to abstain from eating meat on the Fridays of Lent.

Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of Hinche to the La Saline market, a maze of tables of vegetables and meat swarming with flies. Women buy the dirt, then process it into mud cookies… Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which Fort Dimanche is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun. The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets. A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered… Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them. "I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me." (By Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press, January 31, 2008)

Good Friday Is a Day of Fast and Abstinence
On Good Friday, Catholics over 14 years of age are expected to abstain from eating meat on this day. Catholics 18 years of age and up to the beginning of their 60th year are expected to fast: taking only one full meal and two other light meals, eating nothing between meals.

From Soutenus: During Lent you might want to place the money save by fasting and abstinence aside for people in poverty. Go to the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation to learn about their nutrition programs.

Fear of Suffering

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt."

Thomas Merton US religious author, clergyman, & Trappist monk (1915 - 1968)
H/T: Epiphany of Faith