Beheading of John the Baptist

intro

Today I am with a father and daughter who are suffering. I am with Margo, a young woman who in 2020, just weeks before her wedding suffered a terrible car accident which left her confined to a wheel-chair, unable to move or communicate. 

Since that day, her father Mike has gathered people every night at 9pm to pray for Margo. Today the 1000s upon 1000s who pray this Rosary are offering it for Margo’s healing through the intercession of Pauline Jaricot.

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Today, August 29, is the Feast of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist.

John the Baptist suffered and was put to death by King Herod for being faithful to the truth about marriage. In Matthew Chapter 11, when John was suffering in prison – he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask them, “Are you the one who is to come (the Savior) or should we be looking for another?” Many Fathers of the Church think John sent them to Jesus, not because John doubted but so that his disciples would learn for themselves that Jesus was the Messiah because they still clung to John.

I wonder if John’s disciples were also tempted to doubt and not put their faith in Jesus because their beloved master, John was now suffering unjustly in prison and faced death. And if Jesus was God the Savior, then why was he allowing John, this innocent righteous man to suffer and not do anything about it? Isn’t this a question we all wrestle with at some time? Why does God allow suffering, especially the suffering of the innocent? What is the meaning and purpose of suffering anyway?

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Jesus Christ is the only one who gives meaning and purpose to suffering.

St. John Paul II explained the meaning of suffering in letter entitled Salvifici Doloris: The Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. There he writes: One can say that with the suffering of Christ all human suffering has found itself in a new situation…In the Cross of Christ not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed,…Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished. He is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.

Jesus brought into His suffering all the suffering that every person would every suffer from the beginning to the end of time. Then Jesus transformed it and gave it meaning and purpose. Jesus brought our suffering into his redemptive suffering so that we would have a way to participate with Him in saving souls. This gives our suffering a meaning - to save souls.

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St. Paul writes in the Letter to the Colossians 1:24

"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 could be lacking in the suffering of Jesus? Our participation!

Jesus is inviting us to help him rescue souls. Jesus is inviting us into His Rescue Mission. We can help him by our prayer, by our action, but the most powerful way we can participate in this Rescue Mission is by our suffering.

St. John Paul II explains that the sufferings of Christ created the good of the world's redemption. He writes: This good in itself is inexhaustible and infinite. No man can add anything to it. But at the same time, in the mystery of the Church as his Body, Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering. In so far as man becomes a sharer in Christ's sufferings—in any part of the world and at any time in history—to that extent he in his own way completes the suffering through which Christ accomplished the Redemption of the world.

Jesus gave a creative character to suffering, a creative meaning to our suffering. If we accept and unite our suffering to His, then He uses it to save souls. Jesus is counting on us not to waste our suffering.

Just a year ago we were all praying for Tina Jenkins who was hit by a truck while walking through an intersection. Miraculously she survived. She has endured multiple reconstructive surgeries. When she awoke she said three words: Suffering for souls.

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Mary was the first follower of Jesus who was invited to help him save souls by suffering.

We’ve seen her supreme moment of agony captured in one of the many artistic expressions of the pietà – Mary holding the dead Christ. Mary was the first Christian to share in the suffering of Christ. At the presentation, Simeon prophesied that her heart would be pierced because of her son. And yet nowhere in Scripture do we read that she was actually, physically pierced. Who was pierced? Jesus was. Did it hurt Him, did it cause Him to suffer, when the soldier’s lance pierced his heart? No, Jesus didn’t feel it. He was already dead. He couldn’t hurt anymore. He had already cried out “it is finished.” His work of saving the world through suffering was over. But someone else felt that wound. Mary’s heart was pierced. Mary suffered from Jesus’ injuries even when Jesus didn’t. Mary made up what was lacking in the sufferings of Christ before they even took Him off the cross.

Like Mary, All Christians are called to “make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.” Let us turn to Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows and Queen of Martyrs, when we do not want to take up our cross or we are too weak, or tired or we cannot understand. She will not leave us without the supernatural strength of the Holy Spirit if we are willing. We just need to be willing.

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Jesus did not come to take away suffering; he entered into and transformed it, giving it meaning and purpose.

Now our suffering is good for us because it is the most effective means for uniting us to God; and our suffering is good for others because we can unite our suffering to the cross of Jesus to help him save others – especially our family and friends.

The most powerful instrument we have to help our family and friends back to Jesus is our suffering.  

What you

·       Did not choose

·       Do not like

·       Cannot change

·       Cannot understand

·       Accept with Trust

·       Offer with love to Jesus for the conversion and holiness of others

The truth of the doctrine of redemptive suffering and the witness of the saints tells us that the suffering of Margo and her family are doing more to save souls and the world from self-destruction than we could ever imagine.

Archimedes said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

The Cross is a lever to move souls and our place to stand is Jesus. By uniting our suffering to Christ He can move souls.

·       So Don’t waste your suffering

·       Leverage it by uniting it to Christ’s to move souls to Him.