A question about Redemptive Suffering

  • Thread starter Thread starter Holly3278
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Holly3278

Guest
Hello everyone. I just read some things about redemptive suffering. It would seem to me that the saints believed that the more we suffer, the more valuable it is to God if we offer it up to Him for the conversion of sinners. However, does this mean that if we truly love God immensely then we will allow ourselves to suffer immensely? I mean, if a person is in severe pain, would it be a sign of greater love for God if that person resisted taking a pain pill and instead offered the pain to God?
 
We must love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. God permits suffering. The only way to sanctify such moments or events of suffering is to offer them to the Lord for some good purpose. God can convert our suffering into anything…anything.

He gives us divine dignity by allowing us to work with Him in the vineyard, in the saving of souls. We can’t do anything ourselves…with God we can do wonders.

God desires total union with us - in our joys and in our sorrows and amidst pains and sufferings. So suffering if properly accepted gives us opportunities for closer union with Him, with Jesus on the Cross.

God wants us to use the means available to love more. If taking a legal pill is a means to do that…then do it.

God gives us enough pain in our ordinary day that most of us will not run out of those pains before we need to actively seek out additional pains to get closer to Him. What I mean is the contradictions of every day life are such that if we are attentive to them we can use those to fuel our pursuit of total union with Him - we don’t need to seek out additional pain or refuse reasonable medicine.

Think of your normal day…the alarm clock, the desire to hit the snooze button, cold floors, crying babies, grumpy spouse, wet laundry in the dryer, no lunch meat, late bus, red lights, misdeleted files.

If one can embrace the will of God in those events, lovingly and cheerfully, one will run out of day before one runs out of opportunity to suffer redemptively with our Lord.
 
Edward_H said:
We must love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. God permits suffering. The only way to sanctify such moments or events of suffering is to offer them to the Lord for some good purpose. God can convert our suffering into anything…anything.

He gives us divine dignity by allowing us to work with Him in the vineyard, in the saving of souls. We can’t do anything ourselves…with God we can do wonders.

God desires total union with us - in our joys and in our sorrows and amidst pains and sufferings. So suffering if properly accepted gives us opportunities for closer union with Him, with Jesus on the Cross.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your response but I still don’t understand. Perhaps I did not phrase the question well. What I am asking is, should we avoid taking a pain medication or something so that we have more suffering to offer to God? Would avoiding taking that medication in order to suffer more so that we have more to offer be pleasing to God?
 
Sorry, I reposted above on your last point. If that last point doesn’t seem clear, let me know.
 
Holly, it’s one thing to have suffering that you have no control over, and offering that to God to allow that suffering to have some benefit. It’s quite another to purposefully sumbit to suffering that could otherwise be alleviated. I don’t think it’s wise to undertake that unless you are specifically advised and supervised by a spiritual director. Otherwise, it seems to be a bit disfunctional and therefore not giving glory to God.
 
The normal day gives us enough annoyances and physical pain to allow us to participate with God in redemptive suffering. Remember…we need to suffer WITH God…in prayer, in conversation with Him. Don’t suffer alone. For example…don’t fast alone…fast with God. Let your body’s reflexive pangs remind you to talk to God. Never fast alone. But use fasting and the other contradictions of life to spur you on to conversation with God and greater unity with Him throughout the day. “Pray always” “Rejoice always”.
 
God allows things to happen in our lives, if it results in pain and suffering we can offer up that suffering for the souls in purgatory or for some one else who is in pain. We can make the most of what we have.

We are not to ask for suffering. When I was a new Catholic 6 years ago I was not real sure about what he guidlines were. My little grandson was having his tonsils out and I ask the Lord to allow me to bear that pain instead of my little one. I did have a lot of pain and I offered it up for his healing. I never told anyone about it at that time, but did tell my priest later. My grandson did have very little pain and healed fastly, so I accomplised what I wanted. My priest said, to be careful doing that.

We should only offer up what naturally comes our way. He also said it is ok to take pain medication as prescribed. My priest used to be an EMT so is pretty knowledable of health issues. When we bypass pain medication, the more pain we are in the more it can raise our blood pressure and other health problems. He said only to take what ever suffering naturally comes our way and offer it up.

I hope this answers your question.
 
I’ve been wondering about the same thing so the responses have been very helpful.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hello everyone. I just read some things about redemptive suffering. It would seem to me that the saints believed that the more we suffer, the more valuable it is to God if we offer it up to Him for the conversion of sinners. However, does this mean that if we truly love God immensely then we will allow ourselves to suffer immensely? I mean, if a person is in severe pain, would it be a sign of greater love for God if that person resisted taking a pain pill and instead offered the pain to God?
Click to expand...
If a person has severe and chronic pain that can be relieved by medication, legally prescribed by their physician, I see that as a gift from God. There are all kinds of pain, physical and emotional, that may go undiagnosed or not be treatable by medication. That is the type of pain that has I believe has true redemptive value.

Many of the saints who suffered terrible pain from diseases such as TB, leprosy, migraine headaches, hemorhage, could be successfully treated today. I believe most would have made the choice to alliviate the pain and continue to live a productive time until whatever day God chose to call them home. God bless.
 
Thank you all so much for your responses. This has helped me tremendously. I was getting the idea that I could submit to more pain and then offer that up to God. I was very confused about the whole thing.

I still don’t understand Redemptive Suffering as much as I’d like to though and so I have on more question… for now. 😉 I have a friend who tells me that you can offer up not just your bodily sufferings such as arthritis pains but also sufferings such as various day to day annoyances. Is this true? I had always thought that you can only offer up bodily pains like arthritis pains, the pain of having a cold, etc. Could someone please clarify this for me? Thanks!
 
Holly3278 said:
Thank you all so much for your responses. This has helped me tremendously. I was getting the idea that I could submit to more pain and then offer that up to God. I was very confused about the whole thing.

I still don’t understand Redemptive Suffering as much as I’d like to though and so I have on more question… for now. 😉 I have a friend who tells me that you can offer up not just your bodily sufferings such as arthritis pains but also sufferings such as various day to day annoyances. Is this true? I had always thought that you can only offer up bodily pains like arthritis pains, the pain of having a cold, etc. Could someone please clarify this for me? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Yes, you can offer anything: thoughts, joys, worries, sorrows, pains, acts of all kinds - assuming they are licit and not sinful, work well done, painting, playing music, cooking, building spreadsheets, changing diapers, changing tires, greeting people.

Everything - not just the hard and painful stuff. God invites us - wants us to join with Him in saving souls. We throw our offerings into the big pot.

And this is neat - these offerings are / can be tied to the Mass. When the offertory goes forward in the Mass, we should mentally ask God to take all our offerings with the offerings of the Mass. Lord, accept all my work and acts of love performed since the last Mass I attended and accept them, as miserable as these offerings are. They are all I have to give you. Like the fishes and the loaves of the little boy.

Then the fruits and graces of that Mass are distributed to the world as the congregants go into the world…those distributed and used graces produce more loving action in the world - those can then be offered to God at the next Mass.
 
Edward_H said:
Yes, you can offer anything: thoughts, joys, worries, sorrows, pains, acts of all kinds - assuming they are licit and not sinful, work well done, painting, playing music, cooking, building spreadsheets, changing diapers, changing tires, greeting people.

Everything - not just the hard and painful stuff. God invites us - wants us to join with Him in saving souls. We throw our offerings into the big pot.

And this is neat - these offerings are / can be tied to the Mass. When the offertory goes forward in the Mass, we should mentally ask God to take all our offerings with the offerings of the Mass. Lord, accept all my work and acts of love performed since the last Mass I attended and accept them, as miserable as these offerings are. They are all I have to give you. Like the fishes and the loaves of the little boy.

Then the fruits and graces of that Mass are distributed to the world as the congregants go into the world…those distributed and used graces produce more loving action in the world - those can then be offered to God at the next Mass.
Click to expand...
Well said, Edward 🙂
 
Edward_H said:
Yes, you can offer anything: thoughts, joys, worries, sorrows, pains, acts of all kinds - assuming they are licit and not sinful, work well done, painting, playing music, cooking, building spreadsheets, changing diapers, changing tires, greeting people.

Everything - not just the hard and painful stuff. God invites us - wants us to join with Him in saving souls. We throw our offerings into the big pot.

And this is neat - these offerings are / can be tied to the Mass. When the offertory goes forward in the Mass, we should mentally ask God to take all our offerings with the offerings of the Mass. Lord, accept all my work and acts of love performed since the last Mass I attended and accept them, as miserable as these offerings are. They are all I have to give you. Like the fishes and the loaves of the little boy.

Then the fruits and graces of that Mass are distributed to the world as the congregants go into the world…those distributed and used graces produce more loving action in the world - those can then be offered to God at the next Mass.
Click to expand...
Thanks Edward! I had no idea you could offer everything non-sinful up to God! That’s awesome!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top