Can you help me have stronger faith?

[mush]

I ask for your prayers for my mother. She is very ill with cancer and Parkinson’s disease. I have just come back from a visit to NY to see her. She has lived a life filled with giving to others and it’s so hard to see her suffering in this way. I have been away from Mass for the last month due to increasing doubts about my faith in the light of this needless suffering that people have to endure. Help me to accept that this is just a part of life and look for the Lord’s help for my mother and my family through this time.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

Sacrifice is the measure of love. We know how much we love others by how willing we are to put ourselves out for them. On the cross Jesus showed us, in a way that we could somewhat understand, just how much He loves us.

The needless suffering you mention is actually not the waste that you imply—when one looks at the suffering that God Himself was willing to endure. The crosses that He gives us are opportunities to love Him back and be a presence of sacrificial love in a world that so needs it. Your mother’s suffering is not a waste. Only the Lord knows how valuable it is—and with such a self-gift to Him, how sweet will be that union with Him when she finally sees Him face to face.

The key to understanding all this lies in reflecting on His passion and all the mental and physical suffering He endured. To look at a crucifix with faith is to be at peace and to know an inner freedom that one can find nowhere else. You and your mother are in our prayers.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.