On Suffering and Lent.

After showing my friend the Bl. Dom. Marmion article featured in the last post, she asked, 'Is this a way of telling me, I should suffer during lent?'

That would probably seem to be the question on many minds, to which I can only answer:

Uh. Yes... Pretty much.

Why must we suffer? Suffering is such a taboo phrase in today's culture. We actually not permitted to suffer in society. Unwanted babies who upset our lifestyles and require to suffer living a more simple life are aborted and thrown into the dumpster (literally). Grandma who can't take of herself anymore gets offed, so she doesn't make us suffer to take care of her. Can't suffer the pangs of parenthood, dump the kids in school, the teachers are supposed to teach them everything right?

Such is our lavish culture of comforts and express services that we no longer even have to suffer patience for what we want. It's all here, and now. Sex doesn't need to wait for marriage. Shopping doesn't need to wait for the drive to the mall. Come on, when was the last time you rapped your fingers impatiently waiting for your website to load on your 100mb/s modem?

So why suffer? 'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily; and follow me' (Lk 9:23)

Very simply put, because of Love. We love Christ, and therefore want to be with Him everywhere. He denied Himself in the desert for forty days. We want to be with him in the desert. He carried His cross on His blooded and torn shoulders. We want to carry our cross. He was nailed to His cross and suffered. So,  must we want to be nailed to ours and suffer.

It is this unity with Christ on the cross through suffering that earns us our salvation, the chance to be with Christ whom we love the most for all eternity!

And so how can one suffer? Christ lays it so clearly in the aforementioned verse:
1. Let him deny himself.
2. and take up his cross daily.

The first kind of suffering is self-denial, it is a voluntary penance. It is mortification, the dying of the self. What the church prescribes yearly, as the obligatory abstinence from flesh meat during fridays and Lent, and the fasting during Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This is the minimum one should do, and of course one may do more. Why not give up meat every friday?

It doesn't have to be a huge mortification; and they are not supposed to affect your health, it could merely be something very tiny like eating everything on your plate, especially if you hate it. It could be taking a cold shower once a week if you usually take warm ones. It could be praising God for all the good things that He's given to your enemy (or annoying little sister) when he annoys you. But it has to hurt.

It has to hurt in order to detach ourselves from the world so that we may be untied with Christ on the cross. Only when are bound to Him, can we be with Him in heaven, where we belong. These little mortifications are the purifying fires that purge ill habits and impurities, and make us tough and strong, and capable of facing the evils of the world. They reign in our passions and give us strength to say 'no' in a world that has forgotten how. Most importantly, they teach us to turn to cross to endure them, because without His grace we would fail.

The second kind of suffering is given to us. These crosses that the Lord generously sends our way. These are the ones we have no control off, the accidents, the injuries, the slip-ups, the cancers, the thunderstorms, the disappointments. The Lord gives these to us that we may endure them, and like in mortification, to turn to His cross for strength, and to give them back to Him as a penance.

There is not one rugby player who has won games who has not had to suffer the pain of being tackled and stepped on during training. There is not one sprinter who has won medals who did not endure limping home on jelly legs. There is not one doctor who has not had endure being dressed down by consultants or 36 hour shifts. One has to suffer to get to where one wants to be. So it is with Heaven.

The road to Heaven is a thin and narrow one, filled with many thorns, briars, and pitfalls. However, Heaven itself is the most wonderful place that one could ever exist in. To be forever, permanently in the loving presence of Jesus. To go to Heaven, we must imitate Christ, the ruler of Heaven. We must suffer.