The cross on Calvary, the cross upon which Christ conducts His final dialogue with the Father, emerges from the very heart of the love that man, created in the image and likeness of God, has been given as a gift, according to God’s eternal plan (Dives in Misericordia, 7).
Perhaps the question arises in our hearts in situations of suffering: Why? Why me? Why my loved ones? Why such a cross in my life? Suffering is always difficult and goes against human nature – we were not created to suffer. God does not want our suffering.
How, then, to understand the words which say that the cross of Jesus “emerges from the very heart of the love that man, created in the image and likeness of God, has been given as a gift, according to God’s eternal” ?
It was out of love that Jesus agreed to take up the cross. Out of love, He took all our sins and our sufferings upon Himself, so that we would not be left alone in any of these experiences.
Out of love, the merciful Father sent his Son into the world to save us—through the cross. For He knew that through his suffering we shall be saved!
Do you thank Jesus for His merciful love that led Him to the cross to save you?
How do you accept sufferings that you encounter?
Are you able to trust in God, believing that the merciful Father can bring good out of every suffering in your life?
“O God, You could have saved thousands of worlds with just one word; one sigh from Jesus would have sufficed to recompense Your justice, but instead, O Jesus, You underwent such terrible suffering Yourself, solely out of love of us. Your Father’s Justice would have been atoned for with just one sigh from You; therefore all that You suffered was the work solely of Your mercy and infinite love” (D. 1747).
“I see that God will never allow anything beyond what we can bear. O, I fear nothing; if He sends great torments on our soul, then He supports it with even greater graces, even if we do not notice them at all” (D. 78).
