Besides the obvious that it can draw people to the faith, why does God inflict mystics and saints with the wounds of Christ?
Those afflicted have mentioned about “sharing” the pain of Christ’s crufixion, and suffering for others, but is this necessary? Christ suffered for us already, so any further suffering in this regard to others should be obsolete.
Is it known if the suffering endured by those afflicted do anything else on a higher level (e.g. free souls from purgatory, etc.)?
All miracles contain a message for the Church and the world. A stigmata is the work of God, not the individual. It has a message. It is usually the work of Mystical Theologians to try to discern the message using reason, tradition, scripture and dogma.
Not everyone who has received the stigmata has been a saint. There are some dubious cases recorded in history.
A saint becomes a saint by living the Gospel in his or her state of life by fulfilling God’s will in his/her life, not because they get a stigmata or have some other miracle in their lives. They have lived heroic Christian lives. That’s what makes them saints.
The Church examines the person’s life, not the miracles before the person dies. The miracles come from God. But God is not up for canonization, the individual is. Those saints who have lived with the stigmata have accepted the suffering that comes from it as a share in Christ’s sufferings, not because there is anything lacking in Christ’s redemptive act, but out of pure love for Christ crucified.
It’s not the “what” that is important about a stigmata. It’s how the person lives with God’s gift. The other important part of it is the “why”. Why did God do this? There is a message. What is this message? When God performs a very visible miracle, like a stigmata, it is for the good of the Body.
Several people can receive the same gift, but for different reasons. The needs of the Church and humanity are not always the same. They change with time. There may be different messages, but the theme is always the same, God’s mercy and his desire to save humanity.
These miracles have to be looked at within that context of what God wants to tell us about our salvation and our journey to him. The question on the table is usually, what is God trying to tell us?
Unfortunately, we often get stuck on miracles and we fail to look at the holiness of the person’s life. That is usually more helpful to our own spiritual growth and development. It is something that we can imitate. Miracles are beautiful, but the example is more useful to us.
When St. Bonaventure became the Superior General of the Franciscans he studied the life of Francis. Of course he studied the stigmata. He, Aquinas, Dominic, Anthony of Padua, Clare of Assisi, Agnes of Assisi, Giles of Assisi, Thomas Celano, Duns Scotus and Pope Gregory IX were in agreement that Francis had lived the Gospel to perfection. Bonaventure summarized it in his sermons by saying that Francis had become the perfect disciple. This does not deny the perfection of any other disciple. However, Bonaventure was focussing on one person, Francis.
He had the body exhumed and studied by those who new something about these things. As years passed the conclusion that was reached was that the stigmata in Francis was a call to discipleship, which was very much needed during Francis’ lifetime. This was not something that was concluded in a year or two. Francis died in 1226 and canonized in 1228. The conclusion about his stigmata did not come out until 1255. It took 39 years to formulate a theology on the stigmata of St. Francis. The understanding of these miracles often takes time because of study, discussion, discernment, prayer and great humility that is necessary to study these things.
In the meantime, the sanctity of the individual is there as a beacon of light for us to imitate. That’s the most important part. We can’t all have miracles, but we can all learn to be saints.
Fraternally,
JR
