COVID-19: DON'T SUFFER IN VAIN. SUFFER WITH JESUS

This post goes against all that the world teaches and much of what we always believe.

As we enter the second or third or whatever wave of COVID-19, I'd like to share my intellectual perspective on all that we suffer through.  

I say "intellectual" because I firmly believe this, but ... does the word "hypocrite" sound familiar to anyone?

As I journey through Lent I try to daily follow the Way of the Cross in my Latin-English Missal.

The opening prayer includes this important line:

Grant that, while I trace this path of sighs and tears ... I MAY BE READY TO EMBRACE WITH JOY ALL THE SUFFERINGS AND HUMILIATIONS OF THIS LIFE AND PILGRAMAGE.

All the sufferings and humiliations:  

• Being denied access to the sacraments 
• Being denied the company of our loved ones
• Having to suffer with COVID now and maybe for a long time after
• Dying without our loved ones around us, with no familiar funeral arrangements
• Marriage celebrations, etc. being greatly curtailed
• Having to wear uncomfortable masks and having to keep our distance from one another
• Not being able to pop into a store to get any supplies we need or desire

And the list goes on and on.  Whatever a person finds difficult or is truly suffering from, those are things to embrace with joy!

Why should anyone embrace apparent "evils" with joy?

According to our Catholic Faith EVERYTHING comes from God.  There is no such thing as chance or randomness.   Even the hairs of your head have been numbered, as in God knows and creates all things.

Therefore all that happens to us is for our own good and is a part of God's plan for the universe He created.

Whenever we resist pain or suffering we are, in reality, resisting God's love!

From one of my favourite books, now available online, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence :

1.   GOD CONTROLS ALL EVENTS, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD

Nothing happens in the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must he taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. 'Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives' is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, 'and God intervenes everywhere.'

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    We must have trust in Providence

When I see a Christian grief-stricken at the trials God sends him I say to myself:  Here is a man who is grieved at his own happiness. He is asking God to be delivered from something he ought to be thanking Him for. I am quite sure that nothing more advantageous could happen to him than what causes him so much grief.

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So what do we do as we suffer?

Offer each and every moment up to God and beg Him to join our pains with the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

PASSIONTIDE ~ REFLECTIONS OF SUFFERING

http://luke2-14.blogspot.ca/2014/04/passiontide-and-my-lenten-moment.html

 Passiontide - 
 
Two weeks to consider suffering, both Christ's suffering and our own.

Wikipedia has a good summary: 

Passiontide (in the Christian liturgical year) is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, long celebrated as Passion Sunday, and ending on Holy Saturday.

In the Roman Catholic Church, and in Anglo-Catholic churches, all crucifixes and images may be covered in veils (usually violet, the color of vestments in Lent) starting on Passion Sunday: "The practice of covering crosses and images in the church may be observed, if the episcopal conference decides. The crosses are to be covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord's passion on Good Friday. Statues and images are to remain covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil."^[1] (Specifically, those veils are removed during the singing of the Gloria.) The veiling was associated with Passion Sunday's Gospel (John 8:46-59), in which Jesus "hid himself" from the people.^[2]

 From Gloria in Excelsis Deo

 This veiling of the statues and icons stems from the Gospel reading of Passion Sunday (John 8:46-59), at the end of which the accusers take up stones to cast at Jesus, Who hides Himself away. The veiling also symbolizes the fact that Christ's Divinity was hidden at the time of His Passion and death, the very essence of Passiontide.

I usually follow the traditional calendar even though my local parish follows the modern calendar and celebrates the "Novus Ordo"/ "Ordinary Form" Mass only.  When possible I make the trek the the city to assist in a Tridentine Mass.
Since 1969 Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday have been combined into one, making Holy Week also Passiontide.

Mass readings beginning on the fifth Sunday of Lent concentrate on the idea of suffering, particularly Christ's suffering for us.

How do we suffer?
We have to willingly accept ALL THE LITTLE things that cause us any irritation or suffering, be it physical, mental, or spiritual.

We are not animals.  An animal does not possess an immortal soul nor the ability to reflect on life.  When an animal suffers it is living in the moment.  Humans however can reflect back on how things used to be or how we though things were going to be.  We can also be afraid of how our suffering may change our future.

Think of Our Lord's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He struggled but willingly accepted the Father's will for Him:

• He accepted the physical suffering to come.
• He accepted the horrifying idea that He was to take our sins upon His sinless Self.
• He accepted being abandoned by his friends and followers ... even to being abandoned by God the Father as he suffered and died a tortuous death on the cross.
• He did all this with the full knowledge that people would mock his sacrifice then and down through the centuries.

http://www.zazzle.ca/jesus_christ_agony_in_the_garden_of_gethsemane_photosculpture-153335356698085618

How can we refuse to willingly accept this cold spring?
The toe we just stubbed?
Our inability to meet a deadline?
Our headaches?  Our occasional moodiness?  Monotony? Fatigue?
I know I have trouble accepting these and more.  I much prefer to grumble rather than quietly and willingly accept these small sufferings.

But that is what we are called to do, especially in the coming two weeks.
Suffer with Our Lord.  Offer up a prayer that your suffering may be combined with Jesus' for the salvation of souls.

Dear Lord, I offer you (whatever your concern or problem here) For the conversion of sinners For the forgiveness of sins In reparation for sins and For the salvation of souls. Amen.

From http://christhecomrade.blogspot.ca/2012/08/first-friday-of-august-pope-benedict.html