74 j-k, o-p
Priests of my Movement, you beloved sons of my sorrowful Heart, what must you do in order to save all these priests who are so ill and so much in need of my motherly help? Help them, without ever judging them. Love them always. Do not condemn them; this is not your role. Love them by your suffering, by your witnessing, by your good example. Suffer with the pope, with the bishops, with the faithful priests. This is the cross which Jesus now asks you to carry: to live side-by-side with brother priests who no longer believe, who spiritually are no longer alive, will betray the Gospel, who are unfaithful servants and yet remain in the Church to be ministers of this infidelity. This is for you the heaviest of crosses, but it enters into a greater plan of mine. The decisive events have already begun, and the one you are living through is the beginning of these.
Some thoughts: I’m not a good ‘sufferer’, in fact I pretty much do everything in my power to run from the cross as much as I humanly can. I procrastinate, I waste time on useless activities, I self isolate, I turn to food to help me numb the pain of the moment…over and over, non stop. I have escapism down to an art form. I told my Confessor this on Sunday before attending Easter Mass and he reminded me that our daily crosses can be a source of redemption for others. Acckkk…of course they can. Why can’t I remember this when I’m getting ready to run for it?
Dear Blessed Mother, help us to remember to unite our small sufferings to the Cross of your Beloved Son. May they bring about the conversion of those who have fallen away from the faith, especially priests and our close family and friends.
Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice
618 The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the “one mediator between God and men”.452 But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, “the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” is offered to all men.453 He calls his disciples to “take up [their] cross and follow [him]”,454 for “Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps.”455 In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries.456 This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.457 Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.458
1368 The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him, she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ’s sacrifice present on the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with his offering.