Never waste suffering for it unites the soul with Christ and His Passion and we in our feebleness then become as one with the Divine. As God does all the work in ennobling our suffering so that the sufferer then suffers meritoriously and gains meaningfulness from what is seen by worldly eyes as 'useless'.
It is through the suffering souls that Christ is able to still the Mighty Hand of God the Father as the Divine Justice we so richly deserve is subdued by the Merciful Heart of a Loving Father who wishes to have ALL His children saved. It is when we unite our sufferings to those of Jesus on the Cross that we also become co-saviors with the Savior, not because we are good but because God is Good. So we suffer in all its forms not for the sake of suffering but in expiation of the offenses done against the Triune Spirit as we follow in the footsteps of Christ, bloodied but unafraid as we fix our eyes on Christ and Him Crucified and through His Sufferings we are strengthened to endure our own, not for our sake but for His.
In and of ourselves we have nothing to give to God as every good thing we do has it's origins in the Triune Spirit, but through God's Loving Goodness He alone can dignify and make holy the sufferings of his children when it is offered to Him as gift. When we offer this unwanted gift to our loving Father in Heaven our sufferings then become redemptive as we help repair the wound of the soul of man who offends God greatly.
It is God alone who can raise man up from his baseness to become one with the Savior of ALL for the path to true holiness lay not in good works or even in a virtuous life it is reliant solely on God's Goodness alone. We can do nothing to earn our salvation for that is the prerogative of God solely, but we have been invited through our sufferings to be placed on high with the Almighty not from our own worthiness but because God wishes this to be so and so it is.
Redemptive suffering is Christ's kiss to His suffering children as they decide to unite their little sufferings to the Passion of the Man of Sorrows. This is done not from a sense of self preservation but in a giving of self, a spilling out of their very essence as they too go through their own small passion in expiation of the sins of the world. Through Christ what is suffered then becomes purgative and redemptive so that all men would be saved, most especially the prodigal children who have refused the Merciful Love of the Triune Spirit.
The role of victim soul is directly related to Christ and Him Crucified, and through the Mysterious Love of God we become united to the Divine in one Will, and that is to save ALL men not because they are worthy but because God Willed it from the beginning. Through redemptive suffering we make up for the souls who refuse God's Saving Grace by placing their needs above our own as we atone united to Christ Crucified for the manifold sins of man which grieves the Father in Heaven and cries out for Divine Justice. This Divine Justice can only be appeased by the suffering of Christ and His army of co-redeemers who suffer for their sake united in one Will the Divine Will. As it says in Colossians, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory."(Colossians 1:24-27). It is not so much a love of suffering as it is to suffer for love.
Though Christ atoned for the sins of man for all time it is through Christ that the sufferer can make amends for what is lacking in the body of Christ through His Church. We see through the Passion of Our Lord the road to Salvation not because we merited it but because God Willed it to be. So we too become one with the Divine as our sufferings echo and become united to that of the one Holy Sacrifice by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at Calvary.
There is no greater loss in Heaven than for the Father to realise that through our lack of reparation many of His children may not share in the Beatific Vision. It grieves the Triune Spirit greatly when this unwanted gift is rejected as the soul suffers unto itself, useless. Whereas the soul that unites its own passion with our Lord shares in the Beatific vision. Though this Beatific vision is impaired while on earth, it will become fully known once the soul reaches the Mystery of Mysteries the Kingdom of Heaven, and receives its Just Reward.
What is also little understood is on whose behalf the victim soul is willing to suffer. No one person apart from heroic souls long to suffer from excruciatingingly painful illnesses. The world will tell you that would be insane to suffer for another but God speaks about it differently as He sent His only Son to die in your place. It is easy for us to suffer on behalf of our children, most parents would suffer and willingly so if it meant saving their children. Some souls would also willingly suffer for those people who may do great things in the world. Who though is willing to suffer for the drug addicts who steal or kill to maintain their habit? What person would willingly suffer for those men and women who murder innocent children to satisfy their own lusts? Who among us would wish to suffer for the men and women who choose to murder their own unborn babies so as to maintain their figures or their monetary prosperity? Suffering takes on a new meaning when we suffer for those who will not show any gratefulness and may never know the pain and anguish it took to help save their souls. It is the victim soul, hence the name who by their unselfish and holy love sup from the chalice of bitterness in order to save the unlovable. It is these heroic souls who suffer for what many of us would consider the 'dregs of society' and through their suffering good can come out of evil for as the Word reminds us, "Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good."
We need only look at our wounded world to understand the need and the depth of those souls who are invited to unite their sufferings with the Crucified One for the love of man alone. It is this unity with the Divine that brings one out of slavery and into His Holy Presence not as equals but as loving children undeserving of such a Tremendous Love which was given to us at a price. Are we willing to also pay the same price for souls who like us are undeserving of such a love?
What also makes the victim soul truly heroic is when God seems to turn away from their all encompassing suffering as if He had become deaf to their pitiable entreaties. Yet the victim soul continues to suffer without complaint as did our Blessed Mother who stood beneath the Cross of her beloved Son. As God draws the soul closer to Himself the vision within the victim soul becomes distorted, such as when we place our face close to a mirror our reflection can no longer be seen clearly. This is also the case with the Triune Spirit, the more He draws a person to Himself the more distorted the soul envisions God. The Triune Spirit has not moved away from the soul, He has simply encompassed it within His Divine embrace. Hence our limited sight cannot perceive this move by our Divine God and thinks itself abandoned.
Only through God does our suffering gain meaning as we follow in the steps of the One who was Crucified for Loves sake.
Peace of Christ to you ALL
Copyright © 2006 Marie Smith. All rights reserved.
