Process of Accepting Suffering & Offering It Up to God
First: Why do we want to accept suffering and offer it up?
Point I. Jesus miraculously healed people’s suffering to bring them faith.
Jesus’ method of teaching, using Scripture, and confirming His words with miracles had the effect of bringing people to see how Scripture was being fulfilled in Him.
Recall the example of Jesus’ teaching method in the healing of the paralytic – it’s an example of how the Old Testament promised that the Messiah would be known by curing people – but then Jesus adds something more. Your sins are forgiven (Mk 2:1-12).
Point II. In Baptism we participate in Jesus’ dying and rising.
Through Baptism we have indeed really been made partners with God.
We have even been made Jesus’ partners enabling us to share our pain and suffering with Him, for something personally good and the good for others.
Jesus not only chose the suffering of people to bring faith to them through healing miracles but obeyed the Father and used His own suffering and death, along with His rising from the dead, to bring us the ultimate gift of faith – salvation through baptism.
Christ’s desire to bond with us is both sacramental and personal.
Point III. There is good that can come from suffering.
One of the primary goods from suffering is that suffering gives us a way to approach God, just as Jesus wanted.
In this respect suffering is an invitation.
Just like Jesus invites us to be in relationship with Him by having a daily schedule of prayer, He invites us to unite our suffering with His.
Additional goods of suffering: suffering can draw us back to God, save us through the Anointing of the Sick, form us toward greater spiritual heights, purify us and make up for the debt of sins we have committed here on earth, build up the Church, and result in receiving the “fruits of the Spirit.”
Point IV. We must share our crosses with Jesus.
St. Paul writes to the Colossians in 1:24. He says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” What does this mean?
What this doesn’t mean is that Christ’s death on the cross was incomplete in freeing us, redeeming us, and fully restoring us, uniting us to God.
St. Paul is telling the baptized Colossians and us that we have to make Jesus’ death on the cross something personal. We have to give Him our suffering.
That is what is “lacking” or incomplete until our suffering is shared with the Lord.
When we have taken up our cross and followed Him, He is pleased with us. We are more united with Him than before, and every cross we give Him is a further step in a closer relationship with Him.
Second: How do I go through the process of Accepting Suffering & Offering It Up to God?
The way we unite our sufferings with Christ, so that we can experience and say we have taken up our cross and followed Him, is through a process of acceptance. By acknowledging and accepting our sufferings and offering them up to Him, we can fulfill Jesus’ command while at the same time growing closer in relationship to Him.
Reflect on life events that are troubling you over a past period of time (hours, day, days, week, month...).
Name the suffering experienced (e.g., physical/emotional/spiritual pain, disappointment, failure, frustration, loneliness, anxiety, temptations, being overwhelmed…). There could be one suffering or a list, a “Litany of Suffering.”
Acknowledge these suffering(s) to yourself recalling that you are in the presence of God. “God, I know you are present to me. These are the sufferings (name) that I have experienced (over a period of time – day/week/month…).”
Accept these sufferings in a spirit of prayer. The burden has to be accepted by oneself alone. This is the hardest part. “I accept these sufferings, Lord (can be named again.)”
Offer to God the sufferings that you have just reflected on, named, and accepted. A person can’t offer up to God what they haven’t accepted. You can’t give what you don’t possess. Acceptance is indication of possession, ownership. “Lord, I offer to You all these sufferings (can be named again) which I have just accepted. The acceptance and offering up sufferings have now become sacrifices. “Lord these are my sacrifices given to you.”
While this process can be done at any time, the greatest opportunity for grace as a result of offering up accepted suffering(s) – sacrifices – is during the Offertory at Mass. Now God, through the priest, will take your sacrifices and turn them into the Body and Blood of Christ. The effect on a soul who worthily receives the Eucharist, after offering up their personally, accepted sacrifices, is immediate. Giving God our sacrifices is ordinarily what we are supposed to do at this point of the Mass anyway.*
When a person has taken these steps, they can be certain that God is with them in their struggle. They are no longer alone. The response of God would be the granting of the grace of the peace of Christ.** While the suffering may not go away, the person is no longer alone, in a supreme way as they are now being accompanied by Christ in much the same way that Jesus taught, “Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Matt.11:28-30).
If for some reason a person cannot make the act of acceptance on their own, they can ask God to help them. “Lord, help me to accept these sufferings which I desire to offer up to you.” God is generous and knows your limitations. He will help even in this.
*Not only is this a process that may require practicing many times, but it is also a strategy of prayer, a spiritual action that points us to Christ, rather than ourselves and some other behavior in the face of pain, that only brings us further away (perhaps sinfully) from peace.
**Peace is one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). The other fruits, love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, may be known through this process, also.