Simply Beautiful

eventually
something starts to happen
last night someone asked me,
"why are you Catholics so into suffering?"
she had been asking me about Lent
i told her we are not really into it,
but it is really into us,
"us" meaning all humans
i tried to explain,
Jesus suffered in every way
mentally,
physically,
emotionally, etc
He fulfilled all things pertaining to salvation through His passion, death, and resurrection.
His suffering didn't take away all suffering,
but His suffering redeemed all suffering
and there is one thing every human, rich or poor,
young or old knows,
suffering.
Jesus used His suffering for our salvation
nothing can be added to His perfect sacrifice.. it is finished..
and now, we as His brothers and sisters, and as St. Paul calls us, "Co-workers with Christ",
can use our suffering for ourselves and others as well,
this is what St. Paul meant when he wrote,
"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I complete in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His Body,
 which is the Church" (Col 1:24)
it is a wonderful mystery of Father God once again allowing His children to know an eternal purpose of loving deeply while we journey home.
we don't embrace our sufferings for the sake of suffering,
that would be pointless,
but we join in with our Lord and grow even closer to Him and His body, the Church.
it's a simply beautiful thing.

wkm