I’m going to be honest here. My life has been very difficult lately. I haven’t dealt with it in the best way. I’ve used busyness as an excuse to not pray as much. I’ve been irritable and have complained. I’ve allowed the stress, anxiety, and trouble with adjusting to new situations to get the best of me.
I think we’ve all been there at some point in our lives.
Suffering is a fact of life. I realized this afternoon that, well, God never said that this life would be easy. Yes, we have those “mountain-top” experiences, but in reality, the majority of the time is just a climb- a struggle. I’m not being pessimistic here, just realistic. Think about our Lord. He endured His suffering to give us a model of how to endure our own. He willingly accepted the cross when it was given to Him. He didn’t complain. He didn’t try and stop it. He let what was going to happen, happen.
But, notice, He didn’t go looking for the cross. He didn’t look for suffering, but when it was given to Him in the form of a cross, He didn’t fight it. He embraced it.
We all have suffering that we can’t avoid and didn’t choose. These are our crosses.
Is your cross one that involves another person? Someone who annoys you endlessly or who has caused a major change in your life? Friend, He sees you. Love them as best you can. In doing this, you are loving both them and God and giving purpose to your suffering.
Is your cross a health condition? Friend, He sees you. Embrace it. Yes, seek comfort and healing as much as you can, but willingly accept whatever happens to you. Offer it to Christ as an act of love!
Is your cross one of an interior nature? Scrupulosity? Anxiety? Depression? Friend, He sees you. Offer it to Him, taking refuge in Him and trusting in His mercy.
Is your cross built up of many little crosses? Daily struggles and annoyances? Friend, He sees you. Each moment of suffering is another chance to love.
Whatever it is, friend, I encourage you to embrace it. This sounds scary, but I promise you, you can do it.
Suffering is going to happen anyway, so you might as well use it for good!! I think of St. Therese of Lisieux as an example of embracing suffering. She offered to Jesus even her littlest sufferings- moments of humiliation and annoyance, for example- and gave them to Him as offerings to His merciful love. Suffering can be turned into an act of love for God, allowing us to grow in virtue and love God and our neighbor.
St. Francis of Assisi is said to have gone around crying out, “Love is not loved! Love is not loved!” When we embrace our suffering by abandoning ourselves to the mercy and love of God, we allow ourselves to be loved by Love Himself, and we, in turn, love Him. So many people have rejected His gift of love, the innumerable graces that He wishes to give. How would that make Him feel? How would we feel if the majority of gifts we ever offered were rejected? If those we most deeply and intimately loved chose to be miserable rather than accept our help and love? We would feel unloved, unneeded.
Suffering without Love is dead. Suffering with Love is life, is an imitation of Our Lord and a gift to Him. Offering your sufferings to Jesus and asking Him to help you out and give you all the graces that no one else wants, both helps you to patiently endure your suffering and to console His wounded heart. This afternoon, I saw once again that the suffering I’ve been given is yet another opportunity to love. No, we don’t have to be happy all the time, and it's okay to cry, vent, and be upset sometimes, but when we offer our suffering to Christ as an act of love, our suffering is redeemed in our own lives and we show our love for our Lord.
Friend, whatever you are going through, I invite you to offer it up. Carry that cross right alongside Jesus for love of Him. St. Francis was right- Love is not loved. When we use our sufferings as acts of love for God and for the world, our trials gain new meaning, and we let Love Himself be loved.
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