As our eyes move toward the foot of the cross, our gaze takes in Christ’s sorrowful mother, Mary, the Blessed Virgin, who followed her Divine Son on the road to Calvary. She encourages us to take our place beside her, to bear our own trials and crosses in life and offer up our sufferings, thereby making reparation for our sins. For when we unite our sufferings to His, we become more like Him, more Christ-like.
Unlike most in today’s world, who see suffering as fearful and futile, and as such, something to shy away from, those who accept Jesus’ invitation to “deny himself, and take up his cross” and follow Him, understand that there is real salvific value in suffering because by His Passion, Jesus infused suffering with redeeming value. On this Good Friday, during this Year of Mercy, as we contemplate Jesus’ Passion and the unfathomable love that burns in His most Sacred Heart for each one of us, the words He spoke to Blessed Dina Belanger are meant for us, too: “I understand human frailty. I forgive readily, I forget indelicacies as soon as the soul returns to Me, but that does not prevent My Heart from feeling the wound.”2 May God grant us the grace to avoid further wounding that most loving of Hearts.
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1Reflctions on the Passion, Fr. Doyle, October 12, 1956
2Reflctions on the Passion, Fr. Doyle, October 12, 1956 – Blessed Dina Belanger (Mother Marie Ste-Cecile de Rome)