Dear Friends and Benefactors of the Society of St. Pius X,

During the Lenten season, Holy Mother Church urges us to turn our minds to suffering. Indeed, no aspect of Christ’s life is paid more attention to by the saints than His suffering. St. Bonaventure says: "He who desires to go on advancing from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the Passion of Jesus." However, at the same time nothing is so neglected and contemned, by unbelievers and even by worldly Christians, who flee from it.

The sufferings of the God-Man are the most mysterious part of the mystery of the Incarnation. Christ could have redeemed us without suffering, as one tear or one drop of blood would have sufficed. On the other hand, it is blasphemy to say that God rejoices in human suffering, as such; to hold, as heretics have done, that God imputed human sin to Christ, and delighted in the agonies which that sin brought upon him.

Why then did Christ choose to suffer, and to suffer so terribly that both His interior sufferings and sadness, and His bodily sufferings were more intense than any other mortal man could ever endure?

St. Thomas says: "The first cause of the passion was that God wished it to be known how much He loved man." The connection is not difficult to understand. An act of the will may be strong but unless it is done under stress of pain, it is lacking in a certain species of intensity. Suffering gives this intensity to acts of the will like nothing else can. It is this which recommended suffering especially to a heart desirous of proving to men the reality and the depth of its love.

At times God asks us to likewise prove our love for Him in the moment of suffering. We all have moments in life when we are happy, content, peaceful, and even full of joy. At these moments our heart lifts itself up to God in devout earnest prayer and our whole being seems to be wrapped up in the delight of loving and serving God. Up to this moment we may be quite unconscious of self. Things have been so peaceful, pleasant, running so smoothly that we seem to have merged our weak nature in God’s love. As far as it went this was genuine. Then suddenly we were pierced by some suffering; by a loss causing great grief, scorn or physical pain. There instantly came into sight, our self —with all its susceptibility and selfishness; protesting, resisting, wailing. Thereupon, one of two things happens. Either our adhesion to God is broken, our recollection scattered, and our loving activity stopped dead by our attention to that hurt and smarting self, or we refuse to be turned from God even by the excess of pain, which we seize and offer up, turning it into fuel for the flame of our heart, and so intensify the act of our union and love.

Pain always has one of these two effects. Many (even pious hearts) turn away from God because of suffering. For them piety has given way to self-pity, to murmuring, to resistance or bitterness. If they continue on in this way, their heart will become embittered and turn away from its last end, and eventually even harden in perversity.

On the other hand, if, we accept suffering in submissive resignation, then we move even closer to the bosom of our Heavenly Father, and our love of the Father becomes even more intense.

Not only does Christ’s suffering proclaim His love but the sight of suffering causes pity and compassion in hearts, which when so touched are moved to make love and union easy. St. Augustine says: "He would win us by His weakness." Our Lord told us this in the gospel of St. John: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all things to Myself." Thus meditation on the passion has been the grand occupation of many souls who have thus been drawn to holiness.

Christ suffered, and suffered all His life, in every variety of pain and anguish far beyond what is possible for mere mortal man to suffer. Suffering was waiting for Him when He first set foot upon the earth. It stood by as He was born in a manger amidst the cold of the night. It accompanied Him in His wandering during His infancy and was there within the walls of the holy house cherished by the Holy Family. It was there when He went forth on His Father’s business and it wrung from Him that cry of anguish in the Garden. Thus did His passion start with a suffering that would expiate sin in its source the heart. It seized Him with fear at the thought of His approaching passion and repugnance at the thought of the ingratitude of men. So great was His suffering that it produces a sweat of blood. Suffering also plated a crown of thorns for His sacred head and caused Him to feel the sorrows of His Mother and the bitterness of rejection by His own people. It laid the cross upon His bleeding shoulder and went before Him to Calvary, where it lingered upon the Cross with him until He died after three hour of agony. Since that day suffering has fallen upon every man and woman in every age and all over the world, and has been full of the fragrance of the Cross. St. Vincent de Paul said: "We ought to regard it as a great misfortune, not only for individuals, but also for families and whole religious communities and orders, to have everything prosper according to their wishes, to spend their time quietly and to have nothing to suffer for the love of God. Yea, hold it for certain, that everyone, every religious order that has nothing to suffer, but enjoys the approbation of everybody, is well-nigh unto a downfall."

Thus the Passion of Christ is intended to unite our hearts to His in that worship based on compassion. It is intended to move our hearts and affections and give us continual sorrow for our sins. The Cross should never be far away from the interior occupation of all who live in order to love God.

Seeing how sin has bowed His head in the agony, torn His flesh in the scourging and nailed Him to the Cross, how can our hearts tolerate sin any longer?

Our attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should also be more profitable by devotion to the Passion. The Holy Eucharist has been given to commemorate the Passion, and the Mass is not just a memorial but a renewal of His most loving sacrifice on the Cross. He who is present at Mass is present at Calvary; he joins with Our Lord Jesus Christ in what He does; his prayers ascend to heaven in company with His prayer; and the power of His Precious Blood streams over him, unto sanctification, forgiveness of sins, and he receives every kind of gift of the Holy Ghost.

There is nothing that happens in which the heart will not be directed, profited, and lifted up by connecting it with the Passion. This will be especially true of all the common events of life —sorrow, trials, trouble. When these occur we can find no solid comfort or support unless we leave self and creature, and turn to God. To resist, to worry, to bewail ourselves, to become impatient, to seek consolation in sin or imperfection, to indulge in murmuring or in dissipation of spirit —these things may seem to ease trouble; but they leave it rooted in the soul. Only one thing plucks it out, and that is to turn with it to Christ.

Let us imitate the saints, especially in this time of Lent, by raising our eyes to the Crucifix. Its sight can impart the necessary patience and resignation in all our crosses to bear them cheerfully and gratefully as means to atone for our many sins, of testifying our love for God and gaining merit for heaven. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians (2 Cor.): "That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory."