Okay, Steph, we all know what suffering is - and is that a wreath of roses?
I thought roses would be a good way to show any readers the beauty of suffering.
Beauty of suffering?
I know, I know - it's taken me by surprise. I thought suffering was only a result of sin in the world, and was something to be tolerated simply because one must in order to get anything done here on earth.
However, I've been learning that, while pain, illness, and weakness are symptoms of a broken world, they're so much more than nuisances.
As I was reading St. Faustina's diary, it surprised me how much joy she got out of suffering for Jesus.
Let me show you what I mean:
"Great love can turn small things into great things and only love endows our deeds with value; the purer our love, the less the fire of suffering will find in us to consume, and suffering will cease to be suffering for us - it will turn into bliss. By the grace of God, now I have received a disposition of heart, such that I am never so happy as when I'm suffering for the sake of Jesus, Whom I love with every tremor of my heart." -St. Faustina (first notebook.)
Pain can be an offering to God, and it can help make our souls beautiful.
Think about this. Imagine it's your mother's birthday, and you love your mother very much. You know that she simply adores roses. The petals, the smell of them, and their beauty...it's her favourite flower. You could just go and buy some roses from the local shop, but you know from experience that those ones will soon get wilted and droopy. So instead, you go into your garden and you pick a bouquet of roses.
Roses may be pretty, but they have sharp thorns that can prick you and draw blood. Before you're done gathering the roses, your hands are all marked up with scratches and little cuts. Is that suffering a nuisance? Is it to be scorned, pushed away, or prevented? Not really. Why? Because it adds so much more meaning to your gift. You love your mother so much that you were willing to go through pain for her sake.
St. Faustina not only tells us how the gift of happiness through suffering has rooted itself in her heart, but she gives us an example.
"Once, when I was experiencing a great suffering, I left my duty and fled to Jesus, asking Him to give me strength. After a short little prayer, I returned to my duty, full of enthusiasm and joy. Then one of the sisters said to me, 'You must have received many consolations today, you're beaming with happiness. Surely God never sends you any suffering, only consolations.' I replied, 'No, you're very wrong, because my joy is all the greater precisely when I'm suffering a lot; and when I'm not suffering so much I have less joy.' But that soul showed that she didn't understand me. I tried to explain it to her: when we suffer a lot we have an excellent opportunity to show god we love Him; when we suffer a little we don't have such a good opportunity to show our love of God; and when we're not suffering at all, our love is neither great nor pure. By the grace of god, we can come to the point where suffering is turned to bliss for us, for love can work such things in pure souls." -St. Faustina (first notebook.)
(That was a long paragraph to quote; perhaps you can offer the pain of reading it to Christ.)
Of course, not many of us have come to the point where we can be considered "pure souls" through which God can work the grace of suffering/bliss. But we can offer the inevitable sufferings and pains of life to Christ, and go through them in love for Him, imagining that we are picking Him a lovely bouquet of roses.
