Redemptive Suffering - Part II

I didn't have any real big plans for this lent. Simple tightening of Wednesday/Friday fasting rules, a commitment to cut out unnecessary spending and give more money to people in need that I encountered was about it. So I suppose it was God who decided to help me focus in on the idea of redemptive suffering. He did this by dropping a few deep meditations on this reality into my lap. 

One of them I mentioned already in a previous post, a short film that my friend Rob shared with me on the 21 Coptic Christian Martyrs of 2015. This short (13 min) film is a brilliant work of art and devotion. It is tastefully done, sparing us the graphic details of their beheading and instead focusing on the steadfast faith of these men devoted to Jesus and committed to forgiving their persecutors to the very end, echoing Jesus words: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

What prepared me for receiving this film was an assignment for my upcoming summer course, the fourth installment in my pursuit of a spiritual direction certificate from Divine Mercy University. In preparation for this class I was assigned to read Fr. Walter Ciscek's book "He Leadeth Me".

It just so happened that it was released on Audible on March 11 so I listened to it during my commutes and gym work outs over the past ten days. What a blessing this book has been to me!

Growing up I had been taught almost nothing about the reality of redemptive suffering. It wasn't a buzz phrase in the circles I traveled in my first five decades. Turns out that it is a very common phrase in Catholic circles, so I began hearing reference to it over and over once I entered the Orthodox and Catholic faith walk over twelve years ago.

Even Fr. Mike Schmitz has a quote on it!
(Fr. Mike's Bible in a Year and Catechism in a Year
Podcasts have gone viral - I'm half way through them)

But NOTHING has demonstrated this reality as well as this book by Fr. Ciszek has. I am so grateful that he took the time to share his experiences as a prisoner in the Russian Siberian work camps with the world. It has helped me finally get a grasp on linking two core Christian concepts:

1. Complete surrender to God's will moment by moment.
2. The fact that God's permissive will may allow us to suffer with Christ.

I have been slowly learning the first, but have been a bit clueless and reluctant to embrace the second. 

Fr. Ciszek's excellent recounting of his experiences and thought processes have impacted me so deeply. His writing evokes several words and phrases, allow me to list just a few that come to mind:

• Heartfelt
• Sincere
• Nuanced
• Loving
• Deep
• Insightful
• Tender
• Theological
• Philosophical
• Devotional
• Brutal honesty toward his own faults
• Compassion towards others and their foibles
• Humility
• Thorough
• Kind
• Non-combative
• Factual
• Patient explanation
• Refusing to demonize or horribalize others
• Seeking the good in others
• Sacrificial service of others
• Not trite or cliché
• Genuine

I can now say without a doubt that I know how to frame my own sufferings better, small as they may be compared to Fr. Walter's. 

Perhaps reading a synopsis of his experience here would help you want to take the deeper dive into his writings. 

His wiki page is here and is a bit more thorough.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to put their own suffering and the suffering of humanity in general into a more hopeful perspective.

Many blessings, hope and light to you.

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