Quick to the point, to the point no faking
I'm cooking MC's like a pound of bacon
Right?
Is that MC Hammer?
No, who is that? ...
That's Vanilla Ice! (laughs)
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So, we're in the season of Lent and a lot of times
people associate the season of Lent with the season of suffering.
And that's kind of accurate. We do a lot of penances during Lent.
We have certain fast days. We abstain from meat.
We abstain from other things. We always give up something for Lent.
Life is full of suffering.
One of the big mysteries of life is why do we suffer?
If God loves us, why do we suffer?
Maybe you're watching this because you can't get out of bed
or you can't get out of a wheelchair.
Maybe you're watching this because you're in the middle of this crisis
and there seems to be no escape and it hasn't just gone on for a day
or for a week or for a year,
but it's gone on for ten years, it's gone on for twenty years
and your suffering just does not make sense.
It's in this moment that we have to understand what Jesus really came to do with suffering.
Jesus didn't come to take away suffering.
And that's hard because we think like, "Wait, why wouldn't he? Doesn't he love us?
Why wouldn't Jesus come to take away suffering?"
No, he didn't do that.
In fact, he said this. He says, "In this world, you'll have trouble
but take heart," like take courage, "I have overcome the world."
In this world, you will have suffering but take heart, I've overcome this world.
Basically, Jesus didn't come to take away suffering. He came to transform suffering.
Now our suffering might not make sense
but Jesus Christ gives your suffering and my suffering meaning.
In fact, this is what even Saint Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2,
he says that Jesus on the Cross seems like foolishness
and it seems like powerlessness.
and it's a stumbling block to Jews and it's foolishness to Gentiles,
That it does, it seems again, it's foolishness and its weakness and that's ridiculous.
But we look at Jesus on the Cross and we realize actually what St. Paul says is
Jesus on the Cross, he's actually the power of God.
What looks like complete weakness, that's the power of God and the wisdom of God
but what looks like foolishness is actually the wisdom of God.
What is he saying? He's saying this,
that might not make sense.
Jesus on the Cross makes no sense but that's how God redeemed the world,
by taking on a body and suffering in and through that body,
Jesus doesn't take AWAY suffering.
He transforms suffering and he makes it, the big word, he makes it redemptive.
In fact, that's how God redeemed the world is he entered into the depths of our experience.
He entered into the emptiness that we feel.
He entered into what feels like abandonment.
He enters into betrayal.
He enters into absolute loneliness.
He enters into a tomb.
Jesus descended to hell.
There is no depth that Christ hasn't gone.
There's no amount of suffering that he didn't endure,
not to take it away, but to redeem it, to transform it.
And now as a Christian, he invites you into it.
Again, he doesn't invite you out of suffering.
He invites you into it.
And not just into more suffering, like you need to punish yourself,
you need to beat yourself up.
He invites you into the redemptive part of suffering.
In Colossians chapter 1 verse 24,
St. Paul says this, he says, "I rejoice in my sufferings."
We think that's ridiculous. Why would you rejoice in your sufferings?
Well, because he was a glutton for punishment.
No!
St. Paul is able to say, "No, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake
and in my flesh, I am making up for what is lacking
in the sufferings of Jesus for the sake of his body, the Church."
Now, at one point, you say,
"Wait, in your body you're making up for lacking in the sufferings of Jesus?
What's lacking in the sufferings of Jesus?"
John Paul II asked this question a number of years ago.
The answer is nothing.
That Jesus' sacrifice is complete. It's whole, it's entire, there's nothing more to be offered.
Then how can St. Paul say I'm making up in my body what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ?
John Paul went on to explain.
He said, "No, the sacrifice of Jesus is complete. It's full. There's no more offering for sin."
But he says, "But so that you and I can participate in his redemptive work of the world,
Jesus extends to us a sliver of his Cross."
When we experience any kind of suffering,
whether that's just super small or something that's overwhelming,
Jesus has extended to us a particle of his Cross,
a sliver of his Cross
so that we can become co-workers with him,
that we could actually be co-redeemers with Jesus,
not because he needs it,
but because he's extending that dignity to us,
he's extending that grace to us, he's extending the opportunity to us
that when you feel you're most weak, when you feel absolutely powerless,
when you feel completely foolish, there's nothing left to give,
that even in THAT moment, Jesus Christ can make you strong,
not because he takes away the suffering, but because he transforms it.
And this is the secret of basically every single saint.
This Lent, the suffering you and I experience, it might be unasked-for,
it might be something we didn't seek out
but also it could be something we gave up this, we gave up that,
suffering without Jesus just hurts.
And all of us are going to suffer, but suffering united to Jesus,
suffering WITH Jesus and having our particle, our sliver of the Cross,
knowing that that means we're close to Jesus on the Cross.
Suffering with Jesus can change the world.
This Lent or this life, you may be in the midst of suffering.
My invitation, and I know it's hard, I know it's difficult, my invitation to you
is to bring it to the Lord on the Cross and say, "Lord, for you.
Let me offer this suffering for you. Let me offer the suffering with you.
In suffering with you, let this weakness now have power.
Let this thing that seems like it doesn't make sense, let it have meaning
and let that meaning be
the world is redeemed by my joining my suffering to yours, Lord."
From all us here in Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless.