TOTUS TUUS MARIA !

THE VALUE OF SUFFERING AND PRAYER
FOR THE DELIVERANCE OF THE WORLD FROM SIN

Myriam van Nazareth

God’s Creation is constantly entangled in a struggle between good and evil. Evil comes from the fallen angels (the angels that revolted against God, and were therefore banned from Heaven. As of that moment they were called 'devils' or 'demons'). God created man holy. Holiness (sanctity) means: living in perfect conformity with God’s Law (unlimited love for God and one’s fellow creature, and due observance of purity in the mind, in emotional life and in the body). A holy person gives absolute priority to the needs of the soul above the needs of the physical body. The needs of the soul (spiritual needs) are exclusively geared to complying with God’s Law. That is why the soul longs for sanctity, experiencing and expressing true Love (i.e.: Love from soul to soul), prayers, expiation and penance out of love for one’s fellow creature, etc.).

The physical needs (material needs) are geared to material interests: food, clothing, dwelling etc. In our society the latter needs can practically only be satisfied through the exchange of money (purchasing and selling). That is why man is so easily exposed to seduction by money. Satisfying our material needs is necessary insofar as our body must be able to live: the body is the vehicle of the soul. Our soul (the actual core of our being) can only live in this world if our body has got the means to live. BUT... God expects man to live holy, THUS to satisfy the needs of his body only with a view to staying alive. All further efforts must be geared to satisfying the needs of the soul. This is where the source of all sinfulness lies.

Sin is every aberration or shortcoming with respect to God’s Law. Man is very easily tempted to sin because he allows himself to be carried away in the supposed necessity to satisfy an ever increasing number of physical needs: all kinds of influences (especially advertising messages, but also the desire for recognition by one’s fellow man) incite man to want ever more money and goods. Man was created such as to perceive the world around him, and not the supernatural elements of reality, which usually remain invisible. That is why he will sooner tend to satisfy his physical needs (relating to perceptible things) than the needs of his soul (relating to the imperceptible). The forces of evil abuse this tendency, and tempt countless souls into chasing after the satisfaction of material needs and neglecting the needs of the soul.

The needs of the soul (as well as God, the angels and saints) can not be perceived with our senses. That is why many people do not even believe in their existence. This is the major cause of the very rapid rise of sinfulness and of the absence of faith in our world. God wishes man to be holy in order that His Creation be kept pure and holy. Creation will stay healthy only if it lives in perfect accordance with God’s Law. Everything which deviates from this harmony or which violates God’s Law (sin!) disrupts Creation. God is almighty. He could restore His Creation to health at any time, but He will not do so unsolicitedly. Why not? God has created man with a free will. This means God allows man to live his life in freedom, and He leaves mankind to organize the world freely. Since the majority of people live lives which, to a major extent, in many respects and at many moments, deviate from God’s Law, the world is drifting ever further off the ideal course of sanctity desired by God.

Thus, the state of the world growing ever worse is NOT due to the fact God would be indifferent, and EVEN LESS due to the fact God would not exist! The forces of evil are going to any length to make us believe this. THIS IS MERELY WHAT IT SEEMS LIKE! It sounds paradoxical, but the decline of the world is actually due to God’s Love for man, for He respects our free will and does not interfere with the way man controls the world. Does this mean the minority of people who do lead a holy life should allow the world to be destroyed? ON THE CONTRARY. IT IS NOT THEIR DUTY TO GUIDE THE WORLD AND ALL ERRING SOULS BACK TO GOD. God has given man a powerful weapon, which, however, is used too little, and especially often quite wrongly: prayer. Praying, is speaking with God. Through prayer we say to God we would like to request Him from our own free will to 'actually interfere with our world'.

All prayers spoken with love in this world, provide nourishment for the tremendous flow of graces which was constituted by Jesus’ Sufferings and by the sufferings of people (the holy martyrs, among others). This Source of Graces is tapped in order to purify souls and to save the world. In this respect we must keep in mind that, the holier the soul that says a prayer, the more powerful this prayer will be (it is then a purer, a 'more beautiful flower'). Let this be another incentive to aim at living in a state of grace (through regular, thorough confessions with genuine remorse, and through a holy life). Your purity and your loving prayers can indeed make a difference to many souls! Keep in mind that it is owing to the prayer of pious souls through all times that our world has not yet perished altogether many centuries ago! Without them God would have assumed mankind did not wish Him to intervene.

Besides prayer there is yet a second means to help restore the balance of God’s Creation: suffering. Suffering can be a means of expiation of sins through voluntarily enduring physical inconveniences (illness, pain, fatigue) and/or emotional inconveniences (sorrow, heartache, worries, mental torture, inability to change a disagreeable situation, etc.). Pay attention to the phrasing: 'voluntarily enduring': suffering is only valuable for the expiation of sins if it is offered to God for that purpose. We must say to God "I am bearing this suffering for You, for the benefit of purification of the world / of the souls / for the benefit of the conversion of my fellow man" etc. Through this offering we actually say to God we agree to bear this suffering. We do not oppose nor resist it. Suffering has got a tremendous value for the satisfaction of the needs of our own soul as well as of the souls of our fellow men, and thus for the sanctification of God’s Creation. Two thousand years ago the absence of faith and the sinfulness among the souls had grown so bad that God decided to send His own Son Jesus CHRIST into the world in order to deliver the world, by His Suffering, from the destructive force of sin. The world had drifted so far away from God’s Law that God was unable to reconcile with mankind, and had taken away the prospect of Heaven after life on earth. Only the Sacrifice of the Sufferings sustained by His own Son on behalf of the whole of mankind was able to reconcile God with sinful mankind.

That is why Jesus came into the world as a Man: only AS A HUMAN BEING was He able to truly suffer physically and emotionally. He did so in an unparalleled way by living a life of inconvenience, pains, sorrows, and crowned by the excruciating Sufferings as of the Garden of Gethsemani up to the Cross on Mount Calvary. Through His Sufferings and physical Death Jesus expiated the sins of the world and renewed the sanctification of mankind in God’s eyes. This is the meaning of the saying: "Jesus has delivered mankind": Heaven is no longer inaccessible to man after his life on earth has come to an end. Jesus’ Suffering resulted in the sins of the world being paid off to such an extent that the world has not fallen down to a level at which its sanctity would have been destroyed altogether. Should Jesus not have accomplished His Sufferings, the world would have fallen totally and irrevocably prey to the forces of evil. This is a risk the world is again running in our days, because after Christ sin has been raging even more fiercely, and mankind has thereby allowed the favourable effects of Jesus’ Suffering to get largely stained. Therefore: God can not tolerate man to shift all responsibility for the restoration of the sanctity of Creation on Jesus, the Redeemer.

In order to truly reap the fruits of Jesus’ Redeeming Sufferings every individual soul must 'take up her own cross': this means, being prepared to sacrifice (to bear voluntarily) one’s own sufferings in this life. To a certain extent the offering of sufferings is necessary for the sanctification of our own soul (that is: to prepare our soul for eternal life in Heaven, to which only holy souls have access, for Heaven is accessible only to that which is in harmony with God). All sacrifice exceeding the extent necessary for the sanctification of our own soul is used for the sanctification of other souls that sacrifice or pray too little or not at all. So, in order to purify and save our world we must pray, and genuinely accept our sufferings. Sometimes prayers are not heard. In certain cases this is a good thing: man does not know what the future has got in store for him, he has not got a complete view of all elements playing a part in our situation etc. God has. Moreover we should take account of the following: to change a situation a certain amount of prayer is necessary. Some things require a very large amount of prayer, because sometimes very many factors have got to be influenced in order to change a situation profoundly.

We could imagine it this way: a prayer said in the right way (attentively, respectfully and lovingly) is like a flower, and the situation to be changed is like an empty basket. Only as soon as the basket is completely full with the flowers of prayer the intention will be heard, provided God agrees to the intention (so: provided the intention fits in with God’s Law). Therefore: never give up praying for the matters you really believe in, because not one single prayer is lost. Do not let yourself be discouraged by the evil of the world. Do not let anyone convince you that prayer would be useless, for only Satan tries to inspire us this deception! Your prayers and sufferings acquire their greatest value for the liberation of the world from sin if you consecrate yourself totally to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, our Co-Redemptrix at the foot of the Cross, the Mediatrix of Graces and Advocate with God.

Mary leads souls that surrender completely to Her, to sanctity. A number of the greatest saints in history were consecrated to Mary. By consecrating oneself totally to Mary one gives up one’s own free will. Total consecration turns your entire life into one all-embracing sacrifice. Mary uses this sacrifice made by the soul consecrated to Her, for the sanctification of the world, for She has been put in command over God’s Plan for the liberation of souls from evil. That is why it is said the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, will crush the serpent’s head underneath Her foot: She is to defeat Satan permanently. In Mary’s power over Satan God wants to demonstrate how strong a holy soul is. But because God respects man’s free will, Mary requests for your consecration onto Her, so She may freely dispose of your prayers, sacrifices, acts of penance etcetera, for the salvation of mankind. Therefore:

  • Consecrate yourself to Mary (surrender completely to Her, consider yourself as being Her property), and aim at leading a holy life.

  • Let the Cross of Jesus Christ shine into your heart and soul. Never betray Jesus.

  • Be on your guard as to all temptation by money and material things.

  • Do not allow anything or anybody to discourage you, for the stench of evil can be annihilated in the perfume released by the flowers of your prayers and sacrifices.

PRAISE BE TO JESUS CHRIST,
the Redeemer

GLORY BE TO MARY,
the Terror of demons

for JESUS’ CROSS and MARY’S FOOT
will save the world
with your prayers and sacrificed sufferings as ransom

Myriam, May 2002