And Why Not Take on the Sorrows of the World?

And Why Not Take on the Sorrows of the World?

The screaming, crying, painful aches
of silent soul and reeling mind?

Eat the bread and drink the blood
and become the heart of every one?

Say good-bye to what is known and loved
in this our graveyard of frivolity?

Tear the bark from naked tree and clothe ourselves
like drapery
upon a cross of which we know nothing
and understand less?

Become the sword that pierces flesh,
skewers and entwines beloved,
twists and binds us to His wounds,

Oh Mary, cleft from child Jesus
broken at the cross,
let me feel your pain
and that of others who
suffer the sorrows of the world.

Good to look back over poetry written pre-Catholic confirmation, but very much well into the love and longing for the true Church, Jesus' Own.

And yesterday, it was good to remember the question that came to mind fourteen years ago on the 7th anniversary of the two back surgeries and death experience, in recovery room, necessitating being rushed back into the second surgery. And to reflect upon Who asked that question, and where I was fourteen years ago, and the pain, and the thoughts of a young, single mother of four children who was dying of cancer.

Yes, why not take on the sorrows of the world? It is, of course, the work of a Victim Soul of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is the work that Jesus offers and allows for those willing to eat and drink His blood and unite in His heart in the path of pain. Not everyone is called to this vocation, but many are called who do not respond affirmatively, and others are called who struggle against the fiat for a while, and God does with us all as He wills, if we will. And regardless, eventually suffering comes even if but an instant of suffering in the last breath--not to mention the suffering of all our judgments, when we face our Lord.

Yesterday, I spoke this truth to the confessor who happened to be celebrating the morning Mass. I told him that a Victim Soul of the Sacred Heart of Jesus must be willing to take on the sufferings of the world. A victim soul must LOVE TO SUFFER AND SUFFER TO LOVE.

It is all done in love and desire, to be one with the suffering Lord, to love enough to suffer enough as He loves and suffers. And then, to resurrect in His love and in His heart. And it helps, also, to experience the suffering of the Sorrowful Mother, as she can teach us the humility necessary to endure pain--not only our own but that of others, that of her tears but also of her Son's redemptive agony.

There is great beauty in suffering with Christ. Much joy in the honor, truly--but not always so easy to maintain this conscious reality! Even a spinal headache fights against the human appreciation. Mother Mary helps if we ask. Jesus offers us His Sacred Heart and all purity and love within His Body and Blood to strengthen.

We are given all necessary to suffer well, to take on the sorrows of the world, in Christ.