One thing that is really just in-your-face brash about Salvifici Doloris is its unequivocal embrace of Suffering as a source of salvation ... at so many levels.
It seems that I, as I feebly seek to Follow Christ, am therefore called ... to thank God for Suffering and to regard the Suffering not only of Christ, but of myself, and even of all, as a Gift; a Grace.
Pope John Paul II distinguishes between (physical) Pain and (psychological) Suffering, at one level; and then raises the complexity of the relationship between the two and the connection between them, that defies any easy distinction between Pain that is a Gift and Pain that is a Curse. No: physical pain, when raised to a certain level, generally overwhelms and may even allay Suffering. Animals, at least those below a certain level of sentience, don't experience the level of consciousness and reflection that is really necessary for Suffering to take place. Suffering is, according to the Pope, one of the markes and signs of our transcendance and humanity, and deserves our genuine thanksgiving.
And both Pain and Suffering are of such humanity that even Christ Our Lord experienced both. And on Calvary, as his physical Pain took on excruciating proportions, He experienced that level of Suffering that He could cry out, "My God, My God, why hast thou Forsaken me?"
And as the Pope says, Suffering evokes that natural cry of, "Why?"
O Lord I know I am weak, I am feeble, and I may not be able to offer thanksgiving for my own suffering ... yet I beseech You to allow me some small recognition of the eternal value of suffering; that is, of the Cross of Christ.
As St Paul says, "Far be it from me to glory, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ..."
Amen, Amen.
In Christ,
Charles Delacroix
Eve of the Feast of St Therese de Lisieux
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