Dear Grace,
Lent is so difficult for me every year because of the focus on the suffering of Jesus. It’s so hard for me to think of it. I could not even go see the The Passion of The Christ movie last year because of this. I don’t understand why Jesus had to die to save us, and why did He have to suffer like that? Why did God choose that way to save us?
In last week’s column, we began to answer these questions by speaking about three characteristics of love that can help us to see a connection between love and suffering and thus how human suffering can be considered valuable and not useless. The first characteristic we discussed was that love is reciprocal — God, who is love, created out of love and wanted His creation (man) to love Him back.
Here, we come to the second characteristic of love — in order for love to be real, it must be free. And that is where the problem began. Man was given freedom to love or not love God, and to obey or not obey God. He also had to know his place — that he was the creature and God was the Creator. So, man was put to a test. We know that he failed that test by his disobedience, in choosing himself over God.
It was this abuse of man’s freedom that made the third characteristic of love necessary. Love is just; it demands justice. Love wants everything to be right and good. We have limited space in this column, but, let us look at this characteristic of love in order to answer your question about why Jesus had to die. When we say that love is just, what do we mean by that?
Consider this very simple and imperfect example: A man is woken up in the middle of the night and told by the police that his son is in jail for stealing an automobile. Bail has been posted at $25,000. He knows his son is probably guilty and if he does nothing, he will go to prison for a long time. Out of his love for his son, the father will go to the bank, withdraw his hard-earned savings and pay to have his son released. But a good father will also make sure that his son pays the money back to him, even if it takes a long time to do so. Yes, he will rejoice to have his son freed, but he will see to it that he pays for his offense. This is what love demands — justice — it wants everything to be made right, to be good.
With us, God did something similar. Because no one was good enough to pay the price for the offense that Adam and Eve had committed by their disobedience, God had to do it Himself. But He did it in a way that we would share in the payment — in the Redemption. And He accomplished that by becoming a man. In this way, we do not “get off the hook.” He works out a way so that we can go to the Cross with Him — He dies as a man. So, now, at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we get to die with Him. How do we die with Him? By way of our suffering. And why by way of suffering, when He could have saved us in any way that He wished? Because He changed suffering — He transformed it and gave it a new meaning.
At the Cross, He shows us that suffering is about love. Suffering and love are linked together. Suffering is a transforming sign of love — what it means to love. He said, “There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend.” And He called us His friends (Jn 15:13-15).
At the Last Supper, on the night before He died, He instituted the Eucharist by the blessing and breaking of the bread saying, “This is My body…this is My blood…which will be given up for you. Do this in memory of Me” (Lk 22:19). In other words, every time you do this, remember Me.
The Mass can be described in several ways. It is a memorial; it is a banquet; it is a celebration. But, above all, it is a sacrifice. One of the main reasons that Jesus gave us the Eucharist (given to us at the Mass) was so that every time we are there and we witness the sacrifice, we will be moved — transformed — to go out into the world and love as He did.
When the gifts of bread and wine are brought up for the sacrifice, we should spiritually place ourselves on that paten (dish) and enter into the sacrifice. He is inviting us to do so. The word “mass” means missa — to send. Therefore, if we attend Mass and leave the church without being changed, we have missed the whole purpose of the Mass.
This is why today we wear the Crucifix with Jesus’s suffering body on it — to remember and never, ever forget what Jesus did for us. We must remember because if we do, we will look beyond the nails in His hands and feet, and we will see love. The Crucifix is a sign not only of suffering, but also of love.
In our suffering, Jesus says to each of us, “Come. Follow me. Imitate me. Love as I love.” He knew that suffering would have the capacity to bring out love in us. Pope John Paul II states in his Apostolic Letter On Human Suffering that, “it is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards neighbor, in order to transform the whole of human civilization into a “civilization of love.”
Does this mean it will not hurt or even be almost unbearable at times to witness someone suffer? Of course not! But it would not be suffering if it did not hurt. It hurts even more, though, when we do not accept suffering. Accepting it also does not mean we enjoy it — suffering is never to be enjoyed. But yet, there can be joy. The joy and love in suffering come from being united to Christ in a most mysterious and intimate way and being a witness to His love in the world.
Listen to the words of our Holy Father, written from Agostino Gemelli hospital, where he himself is suffering:
The penitential climate of Lent, which we are now living, helps us to better understand the value of suffering that in one way or another, touches all of us. It is in looking at Christ and following Him with patient trust that we are able to understand how every human form of pain has within it the divine promise of salvation and joy. I would like this message of comfort and hope to reach everyone, especially those who are going through difficult moments, those who suffer in body and spirit. (Vatican Information Service, February 27, 2005)
© Copyright 2005 Grace D. MacKinnon
For permission to reprint this article, or to have Grace speak at your event, contact Grace MacKinnon at grace@DearGraceMinistries.org.
Grace MacKinnon holds an MA in theology and is a syndicated columnist and public speaker on Catholic doctrine. Her new book <a href="http://www.aquinasandmore.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/store.ItemDetails/S
KU/2394/affiliate/catholicexch4132″ target=_blank>Dear Grace: Answers to Questions About the Faith is available in our online store. If you enjoy reading Grace's column, you will certainly want to have this book, which is a collection of the first two years of “Dear Grace.” Faith questions may be sent to Grace via email at: grace@DearGraceMinistries.org. You may also visit her online at www.DearGraceMinistries.org.
