Heart to heart
"Suffering
and the Mystery of Love"
EDITORIAL Mother Adela Galindo,
Foundress, SCTJM
© Only for
personal use
Dear Family
in the Two Hearts:
Saint Paul,
the apostle, in his Letter to the Colossians
tells us "I am now rejoicing in my
sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I
am completing what is lacking in Christ’s
afflictions for the sake of his body, that
is, the Church”. With these particular
words, it seems that Saint Paul wanted to
reveal to us a very powerful mystery, a
treasure of great value which he,
himself, had already found: the meaning and
the redemptive power of suffering. Even
though this had been for St. Paul a personal
discovery, he invites all of us to also
discover this hidden treasure. To discover
it means opening ourselves to a powerful
grace of love, of fruitfulness, and of an
inconceivable participation in God’s designs
of redemption for mankind and for the entire
world.
The Servant of God, John Paul II, in his
Apostolic Letter, Salvificis Doloris,
tells us that suffering "seems to be, and
actually is, almost inseparable from man’s
earthly existence.” Suffering is a
mystery, an inherent reality to our human
condition. Suffering occurs at diverse
moments in our lives; it is carried out in
different ways, it comes in different
shapes: however, one way or another, it
accompanies the life of man here on earth in
its double dimension: both spiritually and
corporally.
The Holy Father, through this Letter has
reminded us that Christ’s Redemption, the
price of His Passion and His death on the
cross, is a decisive and definite event in
the history of humanity. Not only because
God’s divine designs of justice and mercy
were accomplished ―taking upon Himself our
sins and paying for them, while at the same
time obtaining for us salvation― but also,
because the suffering of the God-made-man,
reveals to mankind a new meaning of
suffering.
This is a new significance, which the human
heart has so ardently desired to understand,
since suffering has accompanied man
throughout all of history and throughout all
lands. And, it is precisely on the cross
of Christ alone, that man is able to find
its most eloquent significance: that God is
love and that God loves us. The cross,
therefore, is a sign and a mysterious
expression of His love.
Oh, what mystery lies in suffering, a
mystery which flows precisely in the power
of the Cross! It is a mystery which is only
accessible to those who open their hearts to
contemplate the deepest realities of love,
of authentic love that is freely given on
the Cross. Love that is pierced to give so
much
life.
Just as Saint Paul says: “For Jews demand
signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we
proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block
to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to
those who are the called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the
wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is
wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness
is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1,
22).
What a mystery! For some, the cross is an
outrage, in other words, a stumbling block;
for others, foolishness– meaning: nonsense;
for many, it is seen as a weakness; for
others, it is an evil which must be avoided
at all costs....... for some, it will mean
the falling and rising of so many;
fulfilling Simeon’s prophecy, when he
presented the Child Jesus in the Temple: and
said to his mother, Mary, “This child is
destined for the fall and rise of many in
Israel, and to be a sign that will be
contradicted and you yourself a sword will
pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed” (Luke 2, 33-35).
For those who are simple of heart, those who
lift up their hearts beyond their
expectations and their worldly yearnings,
and for those who allow themselves to be
enlighten in their limited understanding by
the Holy Spirit with the light of spiritual
intelligence, the cross, [the embracing of
suffering for love and in union with Christ
is God’s strength, God's wisdom, it is the
powerful expression of the potency of love,
and of love to the extreme.
At the
announcement of the suffering of the Messiah
which Simeon prophesied would be the falling
and rising of so many, the Blessed Mother,
who “kept all these things in her heart”,
understood that the salvific mission of her
Son, would take place in the context of
suffering and opposition… that his love
would be for many hearts a sign of
contradiction.
This annunciation, this second annunciation,
was for the Blessed Mother a time for
“another fiat”,
whereby she welcomed the destiny of her
Son’s life in total communion of love with
Him: “and a sword will pierce your own heart
too”. This is the mystery of Her Maternal
Heart, which so many saints of the Church
have understood, that Her Heart was one with
the Heart of Her Son. She teaches us that
love can not be true love, unless it is
willing to suffer with and for the Beloved.
Saint Claire of Assisi, as a result of her
own life experience, tells us: "Love which
is not able to suffer is not worthy of its
name”. Love, therefore, is the richest
source which enables us to understand the
true meaning of suffering, which has always
been and will continue to be a mystery. In
order to discover, as far as possible, what
this mystery, what this hidden treasure is
all about, we must contemplate the cross of
Christ: the redemptive love of Christ who
gave himself up for us, loving us to the
extreme by surrendering his own life in
order to save us.
Definitely, Christ’s love, revealed in its
utmost expression on the cross, gives a new
meaning, a new value to human suffering.
“The cross of Christ ―His passion—sheds a
completely new light over this mystery,
overall, giving it a new sense and meaning,
to human suffering” (cf. John Paul II,
General Audience, Nov. 9, 1988).
In order to be able to grasp the most
profound meaning of suffering, we are to
look to and from the cross of Christ, and
thus be able to understand it from the
language of the redemptive and oblative love
of His Heart. We will not be able to
comprehend the most profound meaning of the
Cross, unless we contemplate it from the
love of the Heart of Christ, as an eloquent
expression of love to the extreme. “Behold
the Heart who has so much loved humanity
without sparing anything to manifest it”
(Words of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary
Alacoque on the Octave of Corpus Christi
1675, during the Fourth Revelation of His
Heart).
May the Heart of Christ, pierced on the
Cross, becoming the fountain of life, reveal
to us the redemptive power of love, the
fruitful power of suffering embraced for
love and in love.
In the love of the Pierced Hearts,
Mother Adela, SCTJM
Foundress
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