A biblical verse which speaks to me so much is that taken from the Letter to the Colossians. Saint Paul writes to the Christian Community of Colossae:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
Col 1:24
Some are shocked at the prospect that the passion, death and resurrection of Christ may appear that they were not effected for the salvation of every person on earth. Obviously the Bible puts such a worry in its place when it squarely tells: While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (Rom 5:6); But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8); and For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures (1 Cor 15:3). It is crystal clear that Christ died for all of us, godly and ungodly.
When Paul is saying that Christ’s afflictions are not complete he is not implying that Christ’s death on the cross was not enough to redeem the entire human race and reconcile it with God Our Father. The infinite merit of the cross of Christ is undisputable.
Having said that there is a feature of Christ’s suffering which is not complete. This is the application of the merits of Christ’s Passion to individual souls. Here Saint Paul is referring to this subjective aspect of redemption. In a commentary called A Catholic Commentary on Holy Spiriture we find: [Paul’s sufferings] are the vehicle for conveying the Passion to the hearts and souls of men, and in this way they bring completeness to the Passion in an external way. In other instances the Apostle of the Gentiles explicitly refers to his personal sufferings that can be utilised at the service of Christ as Christ’s afflictions in his very flesh. For instance, in 2 Cor 1:5 Saint Paul writes: For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. In 2 Corinthians 4:10 Paul says: always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies whereas in Philippians 3:10 he says: that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
With Saint Augustine of Hippo we have the idea that Christ’s Passion is carried on in the members of his mystical body as together they unite their sufferings to Jesus as the head of the body, the Church. Referring to “Christ’s afflictions” as the suffering of the mystical body, the Church, the Bishop of Hippo argues: Thou [member of Christ’s Body] sufferest so much as was to be contributed out of thy sufferings to the whole sufferings of Christ, that hath suffered in our Head, and doth suffer in his members, that is, in our own selves (Enarr. in Ps. 62:4).
The two views are correct. Nevertheless the first one brings on each and every Christian an appreciation of what Christ did for us as well as a loving response to what Christ has done for us on the Cross. After all, when we offer our personal sufferings for others we are actively participating both in the mystery of Christ as well as that of His Church, the Community of believers. By offering our sufferings for the spiritual well being of others we are actively living the Communion of Saints already from this world.
On this point I am particularly struck by what Pope Saint John Paul II in his pastoral journey to Malta, at Saint Paul’s Church in Rabat on Sunday, 27 May 1990:
Our Catholic faith teaches that in the communion of saints the members of the Church are united with each other in a profound spiritual solidarity. Our prayers, our sufferings and our joys affect others in ways that are known fully to God alone. Through the life of grace, each of us is given an opportunity to cooperate with Jesus in bringing the saving power of his Cross to bear on the needs of our brothers and sisters. As Paul himself put it, we can “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, …the Church” (Col. 1, 24). When people are sick, or burdened by troubles, they are often tempted to think only of their own problems. But faith invites us to look deeper, and to see the immense good that we can do for our neighbour by offering our sufferings in union with Jesus as a pleasing sacrifice to God our Father for the needs of all mankind. How many people today stand in need of our prayers! Whether we pray for our family or our friends, for peace among nations or harmony between individuals, for an end to problems such as hunger, disease and drug abuse, we can be confident that our prayers will be heard (no.2).
Yes! Christ’s Passion was enough to save us. However, each of us needs to open our heart to let the merits of Christ’s Passion sink into us by accepting the trials we go through and also offer them for others. In his work Thoughts on the Passion, Saint Alphonsus states: Can it be that Christ’s Passion alone was insufficient to save us? It left nothing more to be done; it was entirely sufficient to save all men. However, for the merits of the Passion to be applied to us, according to St. Thomas (Summa Theologica, III, Q. 49, art. 3), we need to cooperate (subjective redemption) by patiently bearing the trials God sends us, so as to become like our head, Christ. (p. 132). In fact, Saint Thomas Aquinas argues: . . . since Christ’s Passion preceded, as a kind of universal cause of the forgiveness of sins, it needs to be applied to each individual for the cleansing of personal sins. Now this is done by baptism and penance and the other sacraments, which derive their power from Christ’s Passion, as shall be shown later (Question [62], Article [5]). (Summa, III, Q. 49, art. 3, Reply to Objection 4).
If this is true for the forgiveness of sins how much more can it be true for offering our sufferings for others. This makes perfect sense when we consider that Christ is himself visibly present in the suffering ones. In his apostolic letter on the Christian meaning of human suffering, Salvifici Doloris, Pope Saint John Paul II gives us this beautiful reflection:
One could certainly extend the list of the forms of suffering that have encountered human sensitivity, compassion and help, or that have failed to do so. The first and second parts of Christ’s words about the Final Judgment unambiguously show how essential it is, for the eternal life of every individual, to “stop”, as the Good Samaritan did, at the suffering of one’s neighbour, to have “compassion” for that suffering, and to give some help. In the messianic programme of Christ, which is at the same time the programme of the Kingdom of God, suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards neighbour, in order to transform the whole of human civilization into a “civilization of love”. In this love the salvific meaning of suffering is completely accomplished and reaches its definitive dimension. Christ’s words about the Final Judgment enable us to understand this in all the simplicity and clarity of the Gospel.
These words about love, about actions of love, acts linked with human suffering, enable us once more to discover, at the basis of all human sufferings, the same redemptive suffering of Christ. Christ said: “You did it to me”. He himself is the one who in each individual experiences love; he himself is the one who receives help, when this is given to every suffering person without exception. He himself is present in this suffering person, since his salvific suffering has been opened once and for all to every human suffering. And all those who suffer have been called once and for all to become sharers “in Christ’s sufferings”, just as all have been called to “complete” with their own suffering “what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”(99). At one and the same time Christ has taught man to do good by his suffering and to do good to those who suffer. In this double aspect he has completely revealed the meaning of suffering (no.30).
Let us keep offering our sufferings for sinners, for those who are suffering and for all those whom the Holy Spirit shows us to offer them our spiritual closeness through the sufferings we go through in life. In this manner we are following Jesus’ most powerful example of giving himself to us, thus loving us till the end.
