We live in a world where suffering cannot be avoided... If we did not want to confront what we cannot escape, it would show a lack of respect for the true state of things. When we do not want to endure suffering and resist it, it may temporarily create an impression of strength, but we usually feel respect only for those who bear suffering heroically, with selflessness and love.
How different the world would be if retaliatory slogans fell silent and the lamentations ceased... Love would alleviate and remove more suffering than all resistance and revolts could ever expel from the world. I wonder if today's world most urgently needs men and women who possess the courage, selflessness, and love to bear the suffering of our time.
Jesus suffered. Jesus, our God, who became man for us.
On the eve of His suffering, He prayed to the Father that all would be one, one with Him.
He called Himself the head of the mystical body, of which we are the limbs. He is the vine, we are the branches. He placed Himself in the winepress and trod it Himself(1). And He gave us wine to drink so that we may live like Him and share in His suffering. Whoever wants to follow me, let him take up his cross daily. Whoever follows me has the light of life. I am the way, He said. I have given you an example so that you may do what I have done. And when the disciples did not understand that His way had to be the way of suffering..., He explained: Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things and then enter His glory?
Where then is our desire to suffer with Him? When He offers us the cup of His suffering, we resist. It is difficult for us to accept suffering; to rejoice in it seems like heroism; to long for the cross seems almost impossible. To want nothing but to suffer and be despised... the world calls it madness...
O Jesus, when I look at You,
love for You comes alive in me,
and Your heart likewise loves me
as its especially dear friend.
Although I am required to have more courage to suffer,
I gladly accept all suffering,
for it will make me like You
and that is the way to Your kingdom.
I am happy in my suffering,
for I no longer consider it suffering,
but a chosen lot,
which unites me with You, O God.
For You, O Jesus, are with me,
I have never been so close to You.
Stay with me, sweet Jesus,
Your presence makes everything good. (2)
(1) Cf. Is 63:2;
(2) This prayer was written by Titus Brandsma on February 12-13, 1942, in prison in Scheveningen.
Taken from the book: Titus Brandsma, Engagierte Mystik
Published by: Bonifatius-Verlag Paderborn, 1991
Translated by: Norbert Žuška, O.Carm.
