Offer it up, my mom used to say.
Stubbed toe, sore foot, upset at my boss … you name the suffering, my mom had the answer: Offer it up.
I picture something like a tiny little space shuttle flying around my body, soaking up all my little aches and pains and whines … then shooting off into the sky, offering them to God.
Somewhere over that sky, the shuttle releases my sufferings and they sprinkle down like gentle rain on someone else in the world, transformed into peace and encouragement and hope.
My sufferings for your peace.
Makes sense.
Paul says as much in today’s first reading, the opening lines of 2nd Corinthians:
“For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement.”
If we somehow missed the major theological points of our Catholic upbringing or in the Catechism of RCIA classes, we surely could not have missed one of the biggies of our faith: That Jesus suffered, died and was buried for us.
He was the sacrificial lamb that was led to slaughter.
The new scapegoat, who carried our sins off into the desert of his death.
Of course, as Paul points out, Jesus also came back after having defeated death. He provides us with the hope that our sinful nature will not keep us out of a reunion with God – the way we knew Him when we were being formed in the womb of our mothers.
I picture myself as a child in the womb, with full knowledge of the secrets of our faith – full knowledge of heaven, hell, purgatory and all those things we humans wonder about.
Snuggled safely inside the womb, I know everything. I speak to God and my guardian angel who is in the womb with me.
I can’t wait to get out and tell everyone I know how great God is and how wonderful heaven will be.
And then I draw my first breath … and I forget everything.
I cry.
And then spend the rest of my life relearning what I once knew.
And when that process of relearning is difficult and I get discouraged and lose hope, I hear the voice of my mom: Offer it up!
Christ gives us a guarantee in the Gospel today as he teaches the Beatitudes to a crowd that was seeking an answer to the many troubles they had in their lives.
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”
Words to live by.
Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be afraid of suffering. Accept it … and …
Well, you know.
