It s cursed as darkness, when a Christian must embrace his or her suffering as part of Jesus plan of salvation. And so what we do in Mass every Sunday, not only in Holy Week, is we join our lives, and when we bring up the gifts of bread and wine, those gifts are symbols of our lives. We bring up our lives our sufferings our disappointments, as well as our joys. We mix them with Christ s, we offer them up to the Father, and the Father returns eternal life to us. You know, suffering is inevitable.
Old age involves so much suffering.
But it s been my experience as a priest that the greatest suffering that people encounter has not to do with pain and physical illness, but with relationships. People s hearts are broken when relationships are broken. And if you both play the Christ, that is to say, if you live for your mate and deny yourself for him or her, then you ll have a holy and sacramental marriage. Someone has to play the Christ, and indeed, every Christian is called to play the Christ. I changed the words somewhat to fit today s message, and I d like to pray this now.