| The Vocation of Suffering |
| Pope Pius XII – 1957 (Sermon) “To the eyes of the world you appear, before all else, alone. Isolated from the joys of nature, perhaps hardly a ray of sunshine penetrates your little room. You remain, therefore, strangers to all that shimmers in the air, that vibrates and exults in the fields… You follow but from afar, in fact, as mere passive spectators, the continual progress of man’s dominion over the earth. While others engage all their physical energies and bend their intellectual faculties, risking their goods and even life itself you remain isolated from the great issue. You are alone in a room, helpless in a bed, your arms inert, your mind unequal to long or serious application. The world of affection seems also closed to the greater part of you; not only that love of intimate co-operation with the Author of all life which in the legitimate reproduction of life all human beings enjoy, but even fraternal love itself, the love of those who are joined to you by a bond of blood… But there is a more painful aspect for you: you seem alone and are sad to appear unprofitable. In the world, indeed, as in an immense machine, all, even the smallest part serves the working of the whole…In this great forge which is the world where many are needed, and all are, or can be, helpful, you seem useless because you are sick… And, indeed, truly the reality in your regard is altogether different: and on it rests the penetrating gaze of Jesus. You are not alone. In fact, present within you, living and working, there can be Jesus Himself, Who has bound Himself to dwell as in His own dwelling in every soul that observes His Word (John 14:23). Do therefore, beloved sons and daughters, the Will of God. Who more than you can accomplish it fully and with the greatest simplicity. You are not in fact asked to act: You are asked to accept – ever serenely, joyfully if possible. In this acceptance of your state is the accomplishing of the Will of God in you. Then is the promised fruit already assured: Jesus is with you; Jesus is in you. Even when you are left all alone, even when at night you cannot sleep and you are afraid lest you disturb the sleep of others, Jesus is with you. Learn to listen to His Voice, all the more perceptible the deeper the silence. Learn to speak to Him. You will taste and see how good the Lord is: ‘Taste and see how good the Lord is’ (Ps. 33:9). And you will be even more aware that you are mysterious, but living Tabernacles of Him; little by little the pulsations of your heart will blend and fuse with the pulsations of His. And already on earth – in the apparent squalid solitude of your little room – you will have a foretaste of the joy of heaven. You are not useless. Side by side with the material world there exists the world of the spirit. In men’s bodies there are their souls, the substantial form of the bodies, and these through the love of God are made participants of His life itself. Who could describe the mysterious relationships between souls? Who will penetrate fully the ineffable mystery of the Communion of Saints? You cannot do much talking: and yet what an apostolate you exercise, and hence what fruits of salvation and sanctification do you not cause to be born and come to maturity in the souls of others, by your example! Whoever comes to visit you will hear few words from you, but he will see: he will see your tenacious resolve to remain submissive to the Will of God, he will see your serenity and your peace and he will understand that those are waters springing from the well springs of the Saviour Jesus. He will see the smile on your lips, conscious and constant. And tears, often irrepressible, will spring from you eyes and will seem like pearls; they will seem like dew falling on the desert of the world and fertilizing it. And what shall we say of your suffering? Jesus, having come into the world to redeem man – that is to give them life and give it in abundance (John 10:10), wished that this should come about through His Passion. But His Passion – therefore the Redemption – needs to be ‘filled up’ (Col. 1:24) from our sufferings. You are not therefore useless, beloved sons and daughters. By your grief offered supernaturally you can preserve so many strayed souls, illumine so many hesitant souls, give back serenity to so many anguished. Priests in good time will be surprised at the disappearance of difficulties from their arduous and hitherto unrewarding ministry. Heaven will see to whom is due the unexpected efficacy of their words. You are not useless, beloved sons and daughters. When sufferers pray they do, as it were, violence to heaven; they force, so to speak, the Heart of Jesus to hear their requests and graces descend on the world; light returns; love returns, life is reborn.” |
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