Difficult prayer in today's Liturgy of the Hours

[Neil_Anthony]

One of the psalm prayers for this evening in the LOTH is:

Father, precious in your sight is the death of the saints, but precious above all is the love with which Christ suffered to redeem us. In this life we fill up in our own flesh what is still lacking in the sufferings of Christ; accept this as our sacrifice of praise, and we shall even now taste the joy of the new Jerusalem.

It sounds like it’s saying that Christ’s sufferings were lacking, and that we have to fill up what is lacking with our own sufferings. Am I reading it wrong (I sure hope so)

 

[AspiringDeacon]

This actually comes form a papal encyclical. It’s a little hard to understand, but it basically is suggesting the need for our own reparation for our sins, in other words that Jesus dying on the cross does not give us a free ticket to do anything and act sinfully. The salvific message is that we must carry our cross to suffer for our sins like Christ did, that we must sacrifice for others, we must do reparation for our sins, and thsat due to the human condition we will have to suffer, sometimes justly, sometimes unjustly.

Here is a commentary on the papal encyclical where this was taken from:

Thus in commending to the faithful the necessity of making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pius XI speaks as follows in the Encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor: “Although the plentiful redemption of Christ abundantly forgives all our offenses, yet by that wonderful disposition of the divine Wisdom whereby we have to fill up in our own flesh those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, for his body which is the Church (Col. i 24), we can, nay, we must, add our own praise and satisfaction to the praise and satisfaction which Christ gave to God in the name of sinners. It should be remembered, however, that the expiatory value of our acts depends solely upon the bloody sacrifice of Christ, a sacrifice which is renewed unceasingly, in an unbloody manner, on our altars. . . . For this reason, with the august sacrifice of the Eucharist must be united the immolation of the ministers and also of the rest of the faithful, so that they too may offer themselves ‘a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God’ ((Rom. xii 1). Christ, then, as he still suffers in his mystical body, rightly desires us to be united with him because, since we are ‘the body of Christ and members of member’ (1 Cor. xii 27), what the head suffers the members should suffer with it” (Ibid. 26. Pius XI, Miserentissimus Redemptor, May 8, 1928, Eng. Trans., Burns Oates and Washbourne).

 

[mercygate]

Why don’t you take that up with St. Paul, who said it? (Col 1:24)

 

[Neil_Anthony]

Thanks for the quick and detailed help, both of you!

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I tend to think of this as when I was painting the house and left a small corner for the children to paint so they could help. I didn’t need their help, but it gave them a share in the task and pride in the result. Similarly, I think that Jesus left just a bit for us to do so we could share in His accomplishment.

 

[mercygate]

I tend to think of this as when I was painting the house and left a small corner for the children to paint so they could help. I didn’t need their help, but it gave them a share in the task and pride in the result. Similarly, I think that Jesus left just a bit for us to do so we could share in His accomplishment.

It’s about love and will. How did Jesus love: he suffered for our redemption. So we must also ‘suffer for our redemption’ as well as for the redemption of others. It is not that Jesus didn’t suffer enough, it is that he has not yet suffered *in us. *In our love for Jesus, we will to love as he did.