I do not understand what use Jesus can have for our suffering, since it is nothing compared to his

Good morning,

I read that we must offer our suffering to God.

I don’t understand. What use can he have for my suffering, which is nothing compared to what Jesus suffered for us?

It almost sounds like a lack of respect on my part.

So, in my heart I think: “Lord, I offer you my suffering”, but I think that without understanding the reason, I offer it because I know it is a way of showing my trust.

But offering it simply because I know He appreciates it, without understanding, is it still of value to Him?

Paola

---

Answer from the priest

Dear Paola,

1. It must be said very clearly that our suffering adds nothing to the redemption brought about by Christ, because He has infinite and superabundant merit.

2. Partaking of the suffering of Christ, as St. Paul reminds us, is necessary in view of the distribution of the treasures that Jesus has procured through redemption.

By joining in with our suffering it is as if we were opening the door for the merits of Christ to spread in our life. It is as if we were opening a dam and letting the water that it holds flow, to pour it on a specific person or on all of humanity.

3. Pius XII, in the encyclical Mystici corporis, of which we just celebrated the 80^th anniversary of publication, wrote: “Dying on the Cross He left to His Church the immense treasury of the Redemption, towards which she contributed nothing. But when those graces come to be distributed, not only does He share this work of sanctification with His Church, but He wills that in some way it be due to her action” (EE 6, 193).

4. Therefore, our suffering should not be considered as an efficient cause of the atonement for sins.

Those have all been atoned for once and for all by Christ.

The need for our cooperation is in the distribution of the merits of Christ’s passion.

Just as for a car it is not enough to have a full tank to run, but it is necessary for gasoline to flow to the engine, so our suffering and our good works have the role of making a greater quantity of merits and sanctification flow from Christ to us.

5. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that our suffering is in itself nothing, or rather, a string of nothings.

In this regard we find a beautiful meditation in a letter from St. Therese of the Child Jesus: “I can do very little, or rather nothing by myself. (…).

In fact, zero, in itself, is worth nothing; but if it is placed next to the number one, it becomes powerful, provided – of course – that it is put in the right place, after and not before!” (Letter 202, to Father Roulland, May 9^th, 1897).

6. For this reason, Pius XII wrote in that same encyclical: “This is a deep mystery, and an inexhaustible subject of meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention and on the cooperation of pastors of souls and of the faithful, especially of fathers and mothers of families, a cooperation which they must offer to our Divine Savior” (EE 6, 193).

7. In last Sunday’s Gospel we heard that even all the hairs of our head are counted (Mt 10,30).

What is a hair of our head? One would say: nothing.

We lose many of them and for us they are insignificant.

But it is not so for the Lord.

St. Thomas, commenting on this statement of Jesus, observes that only the things that are precious are counted.

For Jesus, therefore, everything is precious. Especially if it is joined to his sacrifice, because it receives a marvelous value.

I wish you all the best, I remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo

Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: