Walking with St. Paul Seven Ways to be a Paul-Bearer, Part IV

Jul 28, 2008

The fourth way to be a Paul-bearer during this Jubilee Year is to embrace suffering’s redemptive power.  This idea, that our sufferings can be united with the sufferings of Christ and effect redemption in our world, is first mentioned in the writings of St. Paul.  This is a revolutionary idea - that suffering is not something we avoid at all costs, but rather can be infused with meaning and even give life.

 

In his letter to the Colossian church, Paul states the teaching simply, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24).  St. Paul isn’t proclaiming Christ’s redemption insufficient but revealing something quite beautiful.  Our Lord, through his Incarnation, has opened up the possibility of partnership with us.  He desires those who benefit from his salvific work to join it.

 

Let’s use St. Paul’s life and letters to look at this mysterious gift a little more closely.  Suffering would be linked with St. Paul’s call from the very beginning.  After relating Saul’s blinding encounter on the road to Damascus, St. Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to a faithful disciple named Ananias to communicate some unbelievable news: he was to go find Saul, the persecutor of Christians, and heal him.  When Ananias expressed concern, Jesus responded, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:15-16).  Few of us will have a dramatic conversion like Paul, but all of us share in his mission.  We are all called to be God’s witness before the nations (remember increasing your “prophet” margins), and we are all called to share in the Cross. 

 

Not only was union with the Cross of Christ at the heart of Paul’s mission, it was the essence of his message.  Though one of the most educated of his time, he told the Corinthians “I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

 

St. Paul’s embrace of the Cross would extend beyond his mission and message to his very life.  Like the prophets of old, he would embody this message in his person. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).   St. Paul saw his suffering as a response to Christ who loved him and gave himself to him on the Cross.  To return that love with the same abandon became St. Paul’s goal.  In the very act of suffering, he was loving Christ back and he was being more intimately united to Christ, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings” (Phil 3:10).  It is clear that St. Paul endured much for the Cross, but he was sustained by what awaited him in the end, “We are ... fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.  I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Rom. 8:17-18). It is the hope of the Resurrection that gives a broader context to his suffering, and ours.  This is what sustained Christ on the Cross. Listen to Hebrews 12:2, “Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Without the virtue of hope, suffering remains an impenetrable mystery.  Hope must be united to our suffering and salvation.  “In hope we were saved” (Rom 8:24) is the opening line of Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical.  It is this virtue that we must bear in a special way this Pauline Year, especially as we commit to entering more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s redemption and our own personal suffering.

 

I would encourage you to read the encyclical “Spe Salvi” and include it in your meditations this year to help you cultivate the virtue of hope so that you may be sustained during periods of great difficulty, pain or suffering and unite those times more completely to Christ for the salvation of the world. 

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