Bottom line: This Good Friday we learn that through the suffering of Jesus we receive the greatest blessings – forgiveness and true life. If we join our own sufferings to his, they become means of grace. Illumined by faith, we can say, “suffering is everything.”
This evening we observe a solemn commemoration: Good Friday of Our Lord’s Passion. I thank you for coming. I recognize you are core members of our Christian community. For that reason, I believe I can speak to you about deeper mysteries – things that might discourage or even scare away those with less involvement. The mystery I speak of this evening is…suffering, the cross.
I’d like to begin with a quote from a twentieth century saint: Elizabeth Leseur. In a letter to a woman on the verge of losing her eyesight, St. Elizabeth wrote: “The Stoics say, ‘suffering is nothing.’ They were wrong. Illuminated by a clearer light we Christians say, ‘suffering is everything.'”*
Suffering is everything. We see that in our Good Friday readings. Isaiah speaks about a “servant of the Lord,” treated brutally who endures terrible suffering: “crushed for our sins, pierced for our offenses.” The Letter to the Hebrews describes the “loud cries and tears” of Jesus. By his suffering, the author says, “Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” John’s Gospel is more serene. He doesn’t need to go into details to tell us about Jesus’s suffering. He uses short sentences: “Pilate had him scourged.” And, “He handed him over to them to be crucified.” He did not need to say more. Everyone in the Roman Empire had seen men tied to whipping posts. If they tried get away, they still heard the screams. And even small children had seen criminals writhing on wooden crosses.
People know what it meant when John said that Jesus was scourged and crucificied. Jesus suffered greatly for us. He did it to take away the penalty for our sins. He had committed no crime. You and I, however, have: not so much a civil crime, but against God. We have an overwhelming debt. That debt would crush us except for one thing: Christ has paid the debt by his blood, his suffering.
Jesus’ suffering has many dimensions. This evening I would to address one of those dimensions. I adverted to it in the quote from St. Elizabeth Leseur. You and I can have a share in Christ’s suffering. St. Paul says that in our own bodies we make up for what is lacking in the suffering of Christ. (Col 1:24) Of course, on one level Jesus’ suffering lacks nothing – he is perfect man and perfect God. But as a limited human he did not experience every type of suffering. He could not, for example, experience the unique suffering of a mother. But the Blessed Virgin was a t his. St. John and St. Mary Magdalene also brought their uniqueness to the cross. The same applies to you and me – if we are willing to take our suffering to the cross.
I feel hesitant to speak about this mystery. In relation to others I have suffered little. But I also know that any joy I experienced required that I first embrace some suffering. When I ran from suffering – which was often – I did not find joy, but emptiness, resentment and envy. When I did embrace a certain suffering, I began to find peace. I know that this applies not only to the vocation of priesthood, but also marriage and the Christian life in general.
Suffering is an inevitable part of the Christian vocation. With that in mind, I return to the words of St. Elizabeth: Suffering is everything. She knew what she was talking about. She had married a man who was a dedicated medical doctor, but an unbeliever who tried to dissuade Elizabeth from her faith. He gave her a copy of Renoir’s Life of Jesus – which scoffs at any hint of divinity. The book had an opposite effect on Elizabeth. It sparked her curiosity and she began read voraciously about Jesus. When she tried to share her faith with her husband, he cut her off, sometimes with mockery. Elizabeth bore his insults quietly and even though she was weakend by hepatitis, she worked diligently. In her early forties, she was diagnosed with cancer and for three years, suffered horribly.
After her death, her husband discovered the spiritual journal she kept. It moved him to his depths and he experienced a profound conversion. He became a Dominican priest and travelled though Europe speaking about his wife’s spiritual writings.
Brothers and sisters, in few moments we will venerate the cross. Jesus invites to unite our suffering with him. St. Elizabeth Leseur expressed it this way: “Though the divine action even our slightest pains, our least sorrows can reach out to souls both dear and distant and bring them light and peace and holiness.”
“The Stoics said, ‘suffering is nothing.’ They were wrong. Illuminated by a clearer light we Christians say, ‘suffering is everything.'”
So, this Good Friday we learn that through the suffering of Jesus we receive the greatest blessings – forgiveness and true life. If we join our own sufferings to his, they become means of grace. Illumined by faith, we can say, “suffering is everything.” Amen.