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Jesus, Betrayed By All
Many Catholics recall particular sets of “mysteries” for each day of the week while praying with the rosary. On Tuesdays and Fridays, we remember the Sorrowful Mysteries: Christ’s agonized prayers in the garden of Gethsemane, the scourging, the crown of thorns, carrying of the cross to His place of death, and finally His lonely crucifixion.
We recall the pains Jesus accepted to pay the price of justice for our sins. Per Isaiah:
It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins. Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole. By his stripes we were healed. —Is 53
Do you think you can imagine His pains? Think again.
No one loves a fellow human being more than the Creator loves us; more than He loves every one of us.
Have you ever known a parent who had to endure a child who became cruel, ungrateful, and self-destructive? The Lord loves the wicked even more than their own parents love them. The Lord knows how wonderful was each one’s potential and how wondrous could have been his or her reward for mere gratitude. He gave them immeasurably more and received no love in return.
Re-read the gospels with that in mind.
Every person who doubted Jesus or tried to trick Him into condemnation before the law. Every person who would not listen or believe. Every disciple who turned away. Every judge or leader who convicted Him. Every person in the crowd who yelled “Crucify him! Crucify him!” even after His flesh had been ripped from His body and thorns crowned His head. Every soldier who forced Him to carry the cross or nailed His hands.
He loved them. He loved them all. He loves them still.
We too are sinners. We too failed Him and made necessary this terrible price. He loves us still.
Lord, have mercy.
That’s a beautiful crucifix Aaron. Now that’s an ironic line right there. A crucifix is beautiful, Good Friday is good. Truly it is so hard to fathom God’s way. Thank you for the post. And today is Tuesday and the Sorrowful Mysteries.
When we suffer in anticipation, when we suffer physically, when we suffer humiliation, when we suffer under our crosses, when we suffer at our dying, help us to unite our suffering to Yours, Lord, for the sake of the whole world.
Shouldn’t we avoid suffering?
We should not harm ourselves. But all people suffer in various ways. When we do, our suffering has redemptive value when offered to the Lord.
It is a mercy that even the noblest saint is welcomed into perfect love. But we are made for justice, so acceptance of pains in reparation for sins is pleasing to Him. Some object that an all-powerful God could require no suffering and rely totally on mercy. But mercy has no meaning without justice. Both are aspects of God, of love, so both are included in the redemption of souls. We can offer our pains as childlike offerings to satisfy the debts of both ourselves and of others.
Purgation (Purgatory) is the refinement of a soul by the painful extraction of impure attachments to sinful and disordered desires. We should love things in proper order (for example, not love dogs more than humans) and proportion (ex: not love food with such excess that we grow fat). As breaking addictions is a painful process, being purified to enjoy life in a truly just society can be painful.
But the greater reason our suffering has value is that it can connect us to our Lord’s experience. His pains are greater than ours. He loves perfectly His own creations who return His love poorly. Such unrequited love is the price of free will — creations who care not because they must (like a dumb animal, by mere instinct) but because they choose to become what they are created to be — beings made in likeness of God.
You can love someone well by sharing only joys. You can love that person better by sharing also his or her pains. By imitating His perfect unconditional love, we better understand and appreciate the Lord. We accept our own crosses (suffering) in charity and anticipation of the life in which His justice will clear away the evils that cause suffering. When all pains are extinguished, we will retain that conformity to Christ; that choice to become willful beings of sacrificial love who live not for ourselves but for each other.
The lives of the saints reveal a paradoxical joy in suffering for the Lord.
I’ll answer with a question: How’s that workin’ out for you?
In seriousness, though, I think avoidance of suffering is the cause of many a downfall of modern man. Why bother with all that Math in engineering school if you can just get that Womyn’s Studies degree and have a wonderful breeze through college, complete with parties and drinking and dope and sex? Why struggle through med school when you can enjoy life without all that suffering on the easier path?
You know what is the cause of suffering many people avoid? Sexual continence. Do you think individuals and society would be better off if more people suffered in chastity? I do.
“No pain, no gain” is an old trope, but the truth is, if you love authentically it will look a lot like Christ’s love for us — it will be self-sacrificial. And sacrifice is painful, pretty much by definition. Did you know God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah that he wouldn’t marry and have children because the exile was imminent and He wanted to spare him the suffering of being a husband and father? I imagine 100% of people married with children experience profound pain at some point in their lives. What do you do with it?, is the question.
And another thing!
http://westernchauvinist.blogspot.com/2021/04/extraordinary-suffering-amazing-grace.html
We’ve suffered quite a lot in the Chauvinist family. I tell my kids, who are the primary sufferers, without Christ on the cross, suffering has no meaning. It’s all despair. But, with Christ, people who witness the suffering of innocents (think Afghanistan) are often made better by their compassion. I believe this is why God allows extraordinary suffering — for the sake of the whole world.
A Christian believes that he must do what he can to end suffering. That is the message of Christ to his brothers.
How? His answer is simple. Repent, and serve God, not the spirit of this world, which is the cause of all suffering and death.
If we want to grow in virtue suffering is essential. Consider a father teaching his son to play football. Dad knows the boys going to get hurt, but he’ll never learn to play with confidence unless he takes the pain. Or consider a concert pianist who must, if he wants to stay sharp, practice for hours even though he becomes painfully tired, his fingers hurt–probably his whole body–but he must accept the suffering if he wants to get even better. Then there is the Navy Seal who must prepare for throughout his career for the battles ahead. He has not just become good, he becomes heroic.
Or consider Mother Teresa who suffered, not just for the poor, but with them
Truth is all of these people grow in virtue threw suffering.
Of course Jesus was betrayed by all – Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Jesus saw it coming.
Well all that suffering is necessary. How do we determine what is unnecessary suffering?
I believe that the Bible tells us clearly. All suffering is unnecessary. When the Kingdom of Christ finally comes–when it’s restored– there will be no more suffering.
In the grand scheme of things. Between the Rebellion and the Consummation of the Redemption, some suffering is necessary.
Suffering is a necessary consequence of the Rebellion, and no suffering is the consequence of love of God.
If the Rebellion was necessary (to show that without faith in his creator, the creation is incapable of following the Law), then yes, you’re right that suffering is necessary, and I was wrong.
I think you are agreeing with Paul on whether the Rebellion (against the Law) was necessary, and I think I do too. So I think maybe I was wrong and you are right.
Luke 9:23 “And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me”
The majority of humanity are damned as an act of love because the Beatific Vision would be more painful for them than the fires of hell if they have sinned against God and did not repent.
Don’t be comfortable and presumptuous of God’s Mercy because his justice is also an act of love.