Primary Agents of Salvation

ONE

It is easy to accept Divine Providence, that God guides all things to good, when we consider the good things in life. It is hard to accept when you or a loved one have been the victim of some evil or abuse at the hands of another person.

How could God allow this and why did he not stop it?

God allows evil to happen to the innocent because he gave all people the gift of freedom. We use this gift for good and abuse it with evil. And since He also made us to be in community and interdependence with others, our free choices -- good or bad -- also affect others.

When we suffer some injustice at the hands of other people we are never alone. Jesus was and is with us. He suffered with you and was angry beyond imagination for the crime committed against you.

In fact, God came into the world to be angry and suffer for sin so that He could save both the victims and the perpetrators by offering His life for them.

God has ordained that humanity be saved through love. The greatest love is to offer oneself for those who have wronged us.

St. Paul writes (Romans 5) “It is not easy to die even for a good man…but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners…While we were still enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”

TWO

Our sins were the cause of the brutal suffering of Jesus, the innocent victim. Yet he offered his suffering to save us. He, our victim, became our savior.

He became the primary agent for our salvation by offering his suffering for us and by forgiving us crying out from the Cross; “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus turned his mistreatment into the redemption of those who violated him. Christ transformed his victimhood into the primary means of salvation for those who hurt him. And Christ likewise changes our victimhood into an association with him for the salvation of the world. Therefore, we can turn our mistreatment into the redemption of those who have hurt us.

That is how God shows His love for us and how we are to show our love for others.

THREE

Mary is the primary model.

Her innocent son was violently murdered by us, yet she stood by the Cross, offering her suffering for our salvation. As we murdered her son, she became Our Mother – our primary intercessor with Jesus.

After Mary, Stephen, the first martyr, followed Our Lord’s example. As he was being murdered, he prayed for his murderers. He turned their crime against him into an opportunity for the greatest of all loves – by which he could participate with Jesus in saving those who killed him.

Maria Goretti was murdered by a man trying to sexually abuse her. Yet she forgave him as she was dying and came to his prison cell after her death to convert him. Maria became the primary agent for the salvation of her abuser.

FOUR 

We also are called to be the primary agents in the salvation for those who abuse us by offering forgiveness and by offering our suffering for them. When we are someone’s victim, we can cooperate in a unique way with Jesus in saving the souls of “those who trespass against us.”

This is the most difficult love – and that’s precisely what makes it the most radical love, and the most powerful, salvific love. The love God used in saving the world He offers to us, so we can – like Him – help save those who wrong us.

In this our victimhood is changed into an association with Christ for the salvation of the world. 

FIVE

In Second Corinthians chapter five, St. Paul tells us; “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.”

The Son of God became man. He did not just become a man he assumed every person who would ever live into His human nature. And with them He brought into himself every suffering ever experienced and every sin ever committed. In this way, Jesus has experienced everything everyone has ever gone through. Jesus knows and has experienced all your suffering and that of your loved ones. He knows, from the inside. But He entered all that mess to transform it to be the salvation of the whole world. In the very next line Paul calls us to be fellow workers with Christ.

We have two choices: we can continue to allow others to victimize us by continuing to live in the anger, the hate, the fear and resentment and the despair that comes from the wrong done to us. Or we can forgive and offer our suffering for the salvation of the wrongdoer.

Jesus said;“Love your enemies and pray for those who have wronged you and in this way you will become like your Father in Heaven.”

Today, look back over your life and think about all the people who have wronged you, then forgive them, pray for them and offer your hurt for them. Do not do this expecting them to change. Your offering may change them – but this is not about them – it is about you – this is about Jesus setting you free from being a victim and transforming you into the primary agent of salvation.

So, hold your head high – you are not a victim, you are a co-Redeemer with Christ and you are free.