Page 21 - Nurturing the Nurturer 2018 Program PDF2

SUFFERING: Definition
The disagreeable experience of soul that comes with the presence of evil or the privation of
some good. Although commonly synonymous with pain, suffering is rather the reaction to
pain, and in this sense suffering is a decisive factor in Christian spirituality. Absolutely
speaking, suffering is possible because we are creatures, but in the present order of
Providence suffering is the result of sin having entered the world. Its purpose, however, is
not only to expiate wrongdoing, but to enable the believer to offer God a sacrifice of praise
of his divine right over creatures, to unite oneself with Christ in his sufferings as an
expression of love, and in the process to become more like Christ, who, having joy set
before him, chose the Cross, and thus "to make up all that has still to be undergone by
Christ for the sake of His body, the Church" (I Colossians 1:24). (Etym. Latin sufferre, to
sustain, to bear up: sub-, up from under + ferre, to bear.)

What is Redemptive Suffering?
Redemptive suffering is the Christian
belief that human suffering, when accepted
and offered up in union with the Passion of
Jesus, can remit the just punishment for
one's sins or for the sins of another, and/or
for other physical or spiritual needs of
oneself or another. Like an indulgence,
redemptive suffering does not gain the
individual forgiveness for their sin;
forgiveness results from God’s grace,
freely given through Christ, which cannot
be earned. After one's sins are forgiven,
the individual's suffering can reduce
the penalty due for sin.

By the sufferings in His human nature
during the Passion by which mankind was
redeemed, Christ gave to all suffering
experienced in the members of His
Mystical Body a redeeming power when
accepted and offered up in union with His Passion. As Pope John Paul II wrote:

“In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ raised human suffering to the
level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his sufferings, can also become a sharer in the
redemptive suffering of Christ” (Salvifici Doloris).

Offer it Up = Open it Up

Have you ever heard someone say "Offer it up"?
Sometimes people have a hard time understanding what that
IT phrase means. When you think of the phrase “offer it up”, think
of it as “open it up.” When we “offer up” our suffering, we
“open it up" for God to enter into it. This makes our
struggle (suffering) fruitful in many different ways, two
of them are: 1st, when we "offer up" a difficulty to God -
instead of succumbing to it in a negative way or trying to

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