St. Paul reflected often on suffering. In his letter
to the Colossians, the apostle says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your
sake, and in my flesh I am filling what is lacking in the afflictions of
Christ” (Colossians 1:24).
In his letters, Paul frequently attests to his great
suffering. He was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned many times, rejected by his
own people, and he suffered under the weight of some ailment—physical or
psychological, we don’t really know—for the whole of his life. Finally, of
course, he was put to death. He was a man who knew about pain.
But here he tells us that he rejoices in his
sufferings because, somehow, they are joined to the sufferings of Christ.
How do we understand this? Well, Christ saved us
through an act of suffering. He died for us on the cross, bearing in his own
person the weight of our sin. On the cross, suffering and love coincided. And
when you think of it, every act of love involves suffering, since love always involves
bearing the burden of another.
Now in Paul’s vision, the Church is not a society or a
collectivity of like-minded people. Rather, it is a body, made up of
interdependent cells, molecules, and organs. We don’t just follow Christ or
admire him; we participate in him. Baptism involves just this dynamic of identification
and participation.
Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that we will be
called upon to suffer. We have been given the privilege of carrying on Christ’s
work in the world in just this way.
Charles Williams speaks of the principle of
co-inherence as key to Catholicism. This is the idea that we are connected to
one another much as the organs and systems of a living body are connected.
Thus, just as one system can take up the work of
another, or one organ the burden of another that is ailing, so can one member
of the body of Christ bear the burden of another.
In accord with Paul’s master idea, we can
consciously offer our suffering—physical, spiritual, psychological—to Christ in
order that he might use it, in his own mysterious manner, to benefit someone
else. Christ allows us to minister through our pain.
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