E16: Redemptive Suffering & Christian Hope

Many of us have grown up being told to 'offer it up' when we encounter some sort of suffering or are complaining, but what does this really mean? How can we find comfort, Hope, and Peace in the midst of pain and trials?

Tune into this month's episode of Catholicism 101 and learn how to better suffer and choose the gift of Hope when all seems hopeless.

Bible Passages Quoted:
-Matthew 27:46
-Psalm 22
-Psalm 77
-Romans 8:28
-Romans 8:18
-1 Corinthians 2:9
-John 14: 1-4
-Daniel 3:1-23
-Matthew 5:48

Resources:
Spe Salvi: On Christian Hope | Pope Benedict XVI
Hurt, Yet Hopeful: A Christian Response to Suffering | Catholic Answers
The Meaning of Suffering | Fr. Mike Schmitz
How to “Offer it Up” – A Step-by-Step Guide 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hi friends. Welcome back to another episode of Catholicism 101, Forever Learning and Living the Faith. Today we are going to kick off the new year by talking about redemptive suffering and the theological virtue of hope, of Christian hope. And so this kind of comes from a place of, you know, we've all grown up having been told when we're complaining, you know, offer it up. And I as a child got really frustrated with that because I was like, you got to concretely tell me how to do this. Um and also what does that even mean? And so this episode's kind of swelled from that. And um, over the years, learning what is redemptive suffering and how can we find hope in the midst of suffering. So that is what today is about, and we're gonna jump right into it. So we all know one of those final prayers of Jesus Christ on the cross as he is suffering. Um, he says in the Gospel of Matthew, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And with this, we we we can realize that rejection and abandonment are universal experiences. So even Jesus Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, he himself felt abandoned by God the Father in the height of his suffering. Now, something a lot of people maybe don't realize is that when Jesus is giving this anguished cry from his heart from the cross, he's actually praying the first line of Psalm 22. Now, this psalm, if you read the entirety of it, which I'm about to, it ends with a swell of great hope, joy, and praise. And I'm I'm gonna read it, but as you listen, listen along for the parallels, especially in the first two parts, because it's split into four parts. Um in the first half, when you listen to it, kind of listen for the parallels of what happens at the crucifixion and during the passion of Christ, and you'll be like, oh, whoa. Like it's very prophetic, obviously, that he he prayed this from the cross. But don't forget about the second half of the psalm, the third and the fourth part, and how he turns this anguish and this suffering into joy and hope. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish? My God, I call by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I have no relief. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One, you are the glory of Israel, and you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you rescued them. To you they cried out and they escaped, and you they trusted and were not disappointed. But I am a worm, not a man, scorned by men, despised by the people. All who see me mock me, they curl their lips and jeer, they shake their heads at me. He relied on the Lord, let him deliver him. If he loves him, let him rescue him. For you drew me forth from the womb, made me safe at my mother's breasts. Upon you I was thrust from the womb, since my mother bore me and you are my God. Do not stay far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me, fierce bulls of Boshan encircle me. They open their mouths against me, lions that rend and roar. Like water my life drains away, all my bones are disjointed, my heart has become like wax, it melts away within me. As dry as a pot shared is my throat, my tongue cleaves to my palate, you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of evil doers closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count on my bones, they stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among them, for my clothing they cast lots. But you, Lord, do not stay far off, my strength come quickly to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the grip of the dog, save me from the lion's mouth, my poor life from the horns of wild bulls. Then I will proclaim your name to my brethren, in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord give praise, all descendants of Jacob give honor, show reverence all descendants of Israel. For he has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch, did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out. I will offer praise in the great assembly, my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him. The poor will eat their fill, those who seek the Lord will offer praise, may your hearts enjoy life forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, all the families of nations will bow low before him. For kingship belongs to the Lord, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God, all who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage, and I will live for the Lord, my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought. So now that you've heard the entirety of this psalm, um, I think you should know that in Jewish tradition it was very common for people to recall and offer up the entirety of a psalm as a prayer from the heart simply by reciting the first line. And this is exactly what Christ was doing on the cross. In the midst of this great torture and his suffering, he offers a prayer from his heart that first of all reckons with the pain and distress he is experiencing, but two, it ends with a deeply rooted hope and a joy in knowing the fruit of his very suffering. Um, I personally find both Psalm 22, this one, and then also Psalm 77 is very similar to this one in the fact that it starts out very um, it's a psalm of lament, and it's just like, Lord, this is awful. Um, I feel like you don't see me. I feel like you're not near me. Um, and then it kind of again changes into, but you have shown yourself to be faithful. You have so shown yourself to be trustworthy, though I have no idea how you're gonna like make good on this. Um, I trust you, and I'm choosing to trust you, and trusting in you is exercising hope, and that gives me joy. So um, Psalm 22 is a really beautiful one to take to prayer in the midst of suffering. But we're gonna kind of talk about how this psalmist was able to change from this deep just anguish and lament into that swell of hope and joy and praise. But I think it is really important to acknowledge that that's a really hard place to get to um if you don't find comfort first. You know, you have to be comforted in your anguish. And typically being comforted means you're just not alone. You know, you're not alone. Um, it's not necessarily someone is coming and trying to fix it, but more so they're just with you in it. So we're gonna talk about um how Christ keeps us company at our own crosses and um how actually we can find comfort too by keeping him company at his own cross. So by our baptism, we have been given the gift of faith. And also at our baptism, we exchange vows with the Lord and essentially say to one another, I take you to be my beloved. I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. Now, these sound very familiar because they are quite literally um the the marriage vows. They're it's literally the marriage vows. So we are betrothed to Christ at our baptism. We are betrothed to Christ at our baptism. And if that's a little bit confusing, I would really encourage you to listen to that first bonus episode entitled God Wants to Marry Us. But just as married couples vow to be with one another in both the highs and lows of life, so too does Christ promise to be with us, and in return, we promise to be with him, to keep him company at his cross. So how do we do that? You know, oftentimes, like I said, we're tempted to be fixers and remove any ounce of suffering we can from the lives of others. Now, while it's a good thing to desire joy and happiness and prosperity for others, the reality is that we cannot know true joy without true suffering. So, in other words, for Easter Sunday to happen, the joy of Easter Sunday, there had to be the horror and the sorrow of Good Friday. And the reality is that suffering is just a necessary part of life. You know, there are so many, so many saints and theologians who have um spoken about how suffering is just a necessary part of life. The ones that come to mind are St. Ambrose. Um he he wrote a lot about that. And then the the more recent one that comes to mind is Pope Benedict XVI. You know, he he talked about how the problem with suffering is not the fact that it happens, but the fact that we don't know how to suffer well. So if you want to get down like a theological rabbit hole, I would encourage like the writings of St. Ambrose and Pope Benedict the 16th. But all that to say, suffering is a necessary part of life, and that part of the good news of the gospel is that by the power of grace won for us by the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, our suffering is no longer meaningless, but it is powerful and it is fertile ground for just a superabundance, this outpouring of a just gargantuan amount of grace, honestly. It is ridiculous the amount of grace you are able to receive whenever you practice redemptive suffering. So basically, when we unite our sufferings with the passion of Christ, he turns it into an occasion of grace that will ultimately bring us joy and peace. We no longer have to throw ourselves into this pool of self-pity, but we can suffer with the hope that he is using this for our ultimate good. And I want to pull a few scripture passages that really highlight this, honestly, and that bring me great comfort, truly. I I use these in my prayer many times. So the first one is um Romans 8.28. All things work for good for those who love the Lord. All things work for good for those who love the Lord. And then before that, he's in Romans 8.18, St. Paul says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed to us. So St. Paul in those two verses is kind of shifting our perspective, um, shifting our perspective to heavenly things and realizing that, you know, um, just kind of reminding us of that gift of wisdom we have been given and kind of encouraging us to take a bird's eye view. Like you have to take a bird's eye view when you're suffering. Um, like look at the bigger picture here. And then later in uh his letter to the Corinthians, his first letter to the Corinthians, he touches on this again. He says, Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love him. You cannot fathom how good the goodness will be, that even the greatest tragedy will be as nothing compared to the glory and the goodness and the bliss and the ecstasy and the joy and the peace that awaits us. So turn your eyes to heavenly things, because this is as nothing, it is only an it is only an occasion of grace for you. And so that is that is honestly a a great comfort of knowing that your suffering is not meaningless. Now, and then Jesus says this in um the Gospel of John in chapter 14. Jesus says, Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God, have faith also in me. In my father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not what I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be, where I am going, you know the way. So my sister actually recently shared with me um this this information she came across about this passage where Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you, and how that is a direct parallel and direct reference to ancient Jewish betrothal and marriage practices. So what would happen is whenever the bride and groom, um, whenever they write up the contract, you know, he writes it, the bridegroom writes the contract with the father to marry his daughter, and he signs the contract and they're betrothed and they're considered married. But the thing is, the bridegroom has to leave and go back to his father's house for a year to prepare like the honeymoon suite, the place for his bride. And so he leaves and he he promises, I will be back for you. I go to prepare a place for you. Like I will be back for you. And so, um, knowing that we are betrothed to Christ and Christ as our bridegroom, uh, as we await the second coming, as we await the second coming for the Lord to come back to us and take us to where he is. We want to be with our bridegroom to take us where he is. We experience that pain and that suffering of feeling like our Lord is not near. And honestly, this happens most especially in our most difficult days. Uh, and it makes me think of that poem about the the footprints in the sand of like, Lord, these were the hardest times of my life where your footprints, and he was like, I was carrying you. Um and the reality, it doesn't feel like he's near, but he is so near, even when we don't see him, and he is preparing a place for us. And oftentimes, um, the greatest preparations happen in the greatest trials, because again, we we couldn't have Easter Sunday if we didn't have Good Friday. We have to experience um deep pain sometimes to know what true joy is and to experience the heights of joy. And so, like in my own prayer, honestly, whenever I'm praying the glorious mysteries of the rosary, and um I have that first glorious mystery and it's the resurrection, it's like, yeah, let's go. Uh, and then we get to the second glorious mystery and it's the ascension. It's like, Jesus, I'm happy for you, but I'm sad for me because we're in that period of time now where essentially like you've left me for quote unquote a year. And um that there's this, there's a pain and sorrow there. Even though it's a glorious mystery, there is a pain and sorrow there. Um, but there's a reason it's a glorious mystery and not a sorrowful mystery because Christ, Christ wins in the end. And then the next glorious mystery is the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And he's like, I didn't leave you. Like, you're not alone. I know you felt alone, but you're not alone. And just you wait and see what happens when the Holy Spirit comes. And then the Holy Spirit comes and they're like, Oh, this is what he meant. Okay, so they they they didn't know for those 10 days, those 10 days between the ascension and Pentecost, they were probably freaking out. They're like, I have like, we're all gonna die. We're all gonna die. But Jesus is gonna make good on his promise and he's he's gonna save us and he's he's gonna he's gonna come through on his promise. And when he does, after this 10 days of, I'm sure, just like anxiety-ridden just torture, um, and just being all locked together, you know. Number one, they were in community. That was awesome. That's awesome. That's what you need. You need to be together, you you know, don't isolate yourself and suffering. And then number two, whenever the Holy Spirit finally came and the Lord, his promise had come to fruition, the just deep joy that they were finally able to experience is probably as the past ten days were nothing, but honestly, it's it's kind of a hint um into what awaits us and uh how to suffer, to suffer with our eyes fixed on heaven. And that is a gift, and it it is a choice and it is a gift. And that choice and gift is known as hope. So Christian hope is a theological virtue, meaning that it is a pure gift from God, but as I said, it's also a choice. Like any other gift we receive, we must do something with it. We can exercise Christian hope by having confidence in the goodness of God and most profoundly strengthened. Um, it is just most profoundly strengthened in the midst of trials. So I um I'm not gonna read the whole passage, but I'm essentially gonna summarize it. It's in Daniel, and I I have it listed if you want to read the whole passage in the in the show notes. But it's Daniel chapter 3, verses 1 to 23. And essentially what's going on, it's at the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, and there are these three Jewish men. Uh, their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I love them. I love their story. Um, so essentially what's going on is King Nebuchadnezzar is like, okay, when the when the horn blasts, every single person in Israel needs to bow down and worship. Now, King Nebuchadnezzar is not saying to worship God, but he has crafted this golden statue, um, or he's had his servants craft it. And he's like, when the horn blows, everyone needs to bow down and worship this statue. And um, whoever doesn't do it, I'm going to throw you into a fiery furnace. And they actually scripture calls it a white hot fire, white hot furnace. And so Shatterak, Meshach, and Abinago are like, nah, dog. You know, not exactly, but they they're like, No, we're not gonna do that. And the horn blows, and they don't. And so um they get they get told on, and so they bring they bring them before King Nebuchadnezzar, and he's like, Is it true that you're not doing this? And they're like, There's no, like, we worship God alone. And so um he was like, I'm gonna give you a second chance. You you must fall down and worship this statue. And um, if you don't, you're going into the furnace. And um Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are like, No, like we're not gonna do that. We worship God alone. And you know, if God can save us, you know, and if God would save us, then may He save us. But even if not, he's still good, and we will still praise his name and we will still love and worship him. We will under note, like, we will never worship this golden statue that you have that you have erected. And so uh King Nebuchadnezzar, as you can imagine, doesn't like this answer. And so he throws them into the furnace. And what happens for um honestly a huge majority of chapter three is this song of praise and blessing um and joy, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are walking around untouched by the flames in this furnace, and they are singing this huge prayer of praise and blessing um and just thanksgiving before God. And so it takes up, as I said, a huge part of chapter three. It is a long song of praise. Um and then actually what happens is they're set free from the flames, and King Nebuchadnezzar is like, Okay, so your God is real, and he he then converts actually. So that is really, really beautiful. But what really strikes me about um this story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is they know they're about to they're about to be killed. And they're like, you know, um, if God wants to save us, if it is his will to save us, then you know, praise God, let it be. But if not, it doesn't change the fact that he is still good and he has a greater plan, and you know, like we don't have to understand it. And so um then they move into blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestors, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. You know, they end up being saved, but that's not that's not always the reality for us, you know. That's not always the reality. We don't always, um, we aren't always spared of the trials. Um even when we're anticipating them and we're just anxious and honestly in the garden, in that in the garden in agony with Christ, awaiting our trials. Um, he doesn't always spare them from us. You know, Christ even said, Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me. And it doesn't pass from him. He has to drink it. Though Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, um, they were spared of the cup, and God's glory was shown through it. You know, his glory is shown both in the suffering and in the absence of suffering. So he doesn't. He doesn't ask us to understand what he's doing or why he's doing the things he does. He only asks us to trust him and to have confidence that he has the power to write straight with our crooked lines. And not only the fact that he has the power to do that, but he promises to do that. We just have to let him. We just have to let go of our control and let him. Now, I kind of already touched on this relating to Christ and his own suffering and how he wasn't spared of that cup. Um, but Jesus tells us again in the Gospel of Matthew, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Now to be perfect is to be made holy. You know, holy, like whole, like W-H-O-L-E, holy. Um, you synonym, you know. And to be holy is to be like Christ. And the reality is that Christ suffered tremendously. He suffered tremendously. But as we as we know that he prays Psalm 22, it ends with hope, and he always hopes in the Father. Now, the second most intimate encounter we can ever have with Christ on this side of heaven is to unite our sufferings with the passion of Christ. The more that we encounter him this way, and the more we grow in intimacy with him, you know, intimacy into me see, intimacy, into me see, going honestly both ways, you know, us seeing into Christ's heart and allowing him to see our hearts. The more we will become like him, the more we enter into this intimacy with him, the more we become like him. We become holy and perfect. And that means we endure our trials and pains with a peaceful and even joyful hope. Now that's the second most intimate encounter you can have with Christ, this side of heaven. But the most intimate encounter we can have with Christ on our earthly pilgrimage is receiving the Eucharist. Now, every time we receive the Blessed Sacrament, we're not only renewing those vows that we made to Christ at our baptism, you know, to keep him company in the highs and lows, to keep him company at his cross by offering it up and uniting our sufferings with his. But he renews his vow to us and he promises not only to be with us in these trials, but to transform them into an occasion of grace and make us more like him. Now, um, if you're anything like me, you're like, okay, okay, I get what it means, you know, maybe, or I'm beginning to understand what it means to offer it up and like what all of this is, but how do you do it? At least that's something that always bugged me. I was, I was a very concrete child. I was like, I need you to lay out the steps for me. And I still am in a certain way. I'm like, all right, you can't speak too abstract to me. You gotta kind of lay it out. Um, and so I um this kind of comes from my own personal prayer too: of like, how do you offer it up? What does that really look like in a practical step-by-step manner? So I'm gonna give you kind of that step-by-step. And again, this isn't this isn't anything like hard and fast, you know, um, but this is this is how I've found it to be beneficial. Um, this has been my own practice. And um, so you you do you do what you need to do with it. But so you you start by entering into a prayerful mindset and ask the Lord to just still your mind, uh, open your heart. To still your mind and open your heart. And so um, once you're kind of in this quiet place with the Lord, you can then begin to just like acknowledge and let yourself feel the pain of whatever trial you're facing. And I think the hardest part of this is not trying to reason with it, to stifle or mute it, to try to explain it. Um, that's really, really hard because again, we don't like to suffer. And so we have to um kind of reckon with the fact that we're suffering, honestly. So then um what you can do is meditate on the passion of Christ. And I think there are two really, really powerful, really beautiful, really helpful prayer tools for this, and that would be the stations of the cross or the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. And um, just meditating on those, you know, in the rosary alongside Mary, um, or on the passion of the Christ by doing the stations of the cross, you know, those are just really, really beautiful ways that in prayer the Lord can kind of lead you where he wants you to go. And one of those things that's kind of like a key to meditate on here is um as you meditate and keep Christ company and think about the agonies and the pains and the sorrows that he experienced, um, you can kind of flip the switch and remember that he is with you and yours. You know, you're standing in the garden with him, but he is also in the garden with you. You know, neither of you are there alone. And then as you're um kind of reflecting on this, you can uh, you know, you can do this at any point. You can do this before you begin praying. You can do this as you're praying. Uh, you know, the Lord knows your heart and the Lord knows what you need, um, and the Lord knows your heart for other people. And so what you what you do is you choose an intention to offer it up for. You know, offer it up, okay, for like for what? What's the point, you know? So offer it up for something, for for someone. You make this request to the Lord of where you need the grace and fruits of this suffering to go. And just as Christ thought of you throughout his passion, um, at this point, you kind of call to mind who do you want the fruits of your suffering to benefit? And honestly, it's a double whammy because even when you don't offer it up for yourself, the Lord still pours out an abundance of grace upon you. So don't feel like um, you know, if it is your own personal suffering and you're like, I have this area where I really need to grow in grace, the Lord knows that. The Lord is not a stingy giver, okay? He, he, he loves a joyful giver, he loves someone who receives well. And so whenever you offer it up for someone else, he's not just gonna be like, oh, thanks, and like ignore you. No, he he is a gracious and generous giver. You're you're also going to be blessed and just again, abundance. And so um, I typically end like my prayer time by asking the Lord for the grace to suffer well, um, and even a prayer of thanksgiving for the opportunity, um, you know, for the passion of the Lord and that opportunity he's given us to um let our pain be intercession and grace for one another um and for even ourselves. And um, sometimes at this point it's really hard. It's really hard to be like, okay, like this is this is kind of sucked. But um I I I find that, you know, the the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, recognizing that like me and Christ, we're in the garden together. Neither of us are alone, we're both together. Um Psalm 22 and Psalm, you know, 77, these are both really beautiful prayers that you can use as a prayer of thanksgiving because again, they reckon with the sorrow and the turmoil and just lamentations, but they end with joy and hope and praise. Now, this gift of hope, the Lord has given you the gift of hope because he trusts you. And if you're like, uh, I'm not a very hopeful person, I'm kind of like a pessimistic, glass half full kind of person. Okay, listen, if you've been baptized, you've been given the gift of hope. And the Lord has given you the gift of hope because he trusts you and he wants you to receive it well, and he wants you to choose to use it, use the gift. So we actually read in Luke's account of the agony of the garden that an angel was sent to comfort Jesus. Now, what could have comforted Jesus as he underwent just this tremendous suffering in anticipation of the cross, other than the experience of not doing it alone? You know, we again, sometimes the greatest comfort, oftentimes most times, the greatest comfort when we're suffering is just knowing that we are not alone. Just knowing that we're not alone. So many theologians, and I've honestly bought into this, um, believe that the angel who ministered to Jesus in the garden, what they did was they reminded him of all the people who would unite their own sufferings to his and keep him company at the cross. Um, I kind of like to imagine, whenever um I'm praying the sorrowful mystery of the agony of the garden, of like that moment um when the angel kind of reminds Jesus of this or reveals it to him. And I don't know, I kind of like to picture um a ton of people in the garden with him, and like me just being in this huge crowd of people in the garden with Christ, and like that's what gives him the strength to get up and um, you know, say the hour has come and embark on his passion and be arrested and like just give him the strength, honestly, to be in that jail overnight after he is arrested because he knows he is not alone. Now, the last thing I want to say um is that he gives you this gift of hope because he trusts you. He trusts you to keep him company, he trusts that you will be um in that crowd in the garden with him, you will be with him at the foot of the cross, you will help him carry the cross, you will be his Simon, and you will you will carry that cross with him, you will not let him do this for naught, um, that you will utilize the gift, you will utilize the grace being given to you and the fact that your suffering is no longer meaningless because of what he's done, but that you are actually using the gift, you are being a good receiver of his generous, generous gift. And the thing is too he he promises to keep you company in your own cross. He's like, Yes, I want the company too, but more so importantly, I know you need the company. And so if you will join me, we won't be alone. So he trusts you. He trusts you, he trusts you, and he loves you, and he gives you such such beautiful gifts. Um, and hope is one of the most beautiful gifts. And I've spent a lot of time in prayer on hope lately, if you couldn't tell. But um, yeah, I I hope you've um enjoyed this episode and maybe it is giving you some points for prayer and reflection in your own life. Um, so as always, I have some things linked in the show notes as resources for you. Um, the first one is Space Salvi, which is on Christian hope, and it is written by Pope Benedict XVI. It is one of the most beautiful apostolic letters um of the popes that at least I've read. And yeah, it it it's it's really good. Okay. And then I also have an article from Catholic Answers, I have a video from Father Mike Schmidt's, and then I also have linked um a how to offer it up step by step guide. Um, and it it it's it's an image that kind of walks you through each of those steps that I talked about today. So um I hope you will find these resources useful. I hope you find this episode helpful. Um, and until next time, I hope you have a blessed day.