Offer It Up AKA Redemptive Suffering

The water is on the heat to boil.The ground beef is browned.All the ingredients are ready. While the water is working it's way to a boil i am going to begin the entry with mother's words. OFFER IT UP. What could she have possibly meant? When there are denominations that preach God blesses you if are given all good things ie a nice home,good job,car how can anyone believe that suffering is redemptive? That is what mom meant but she applied it to little things such as the annoyances of daily life.When you had to stand in line at the store,when it took you 3 hours to get through on the phone,when something just didn't go YOUR way. When you're trying to watch WYD on EWTN and the feed goes out during the Pope's prayer with the youth of the world. However, i think the teaching on the little scale(though it doesn't seem like it)prepares you for the real test later on. After 4 trips to the ER i finally got to see the primary care doctor and he tells me the truth. He does not want me to take meclizine for meneire's anymore. It does more harm than good and it's not a cure. I am to take the adovan ONLY as needed because it has serious side effects.Finally he told me,in so many words,i could go to the ends of the earth but there is nothing conclusive on this disorder and to learn to live with it. I have searched the internet and know he's correct.One place says try this-another try this-and so on. Nothing conclusive. He wants me to be careful-which i decided was a good idea anyway. The other trial in life is to learn to accept what happens. Some of which is self inflicted,some not. I also have to learn to be patient. I blew up the other day at my husband's aide.When it was all said and done i knew i didn't handle it well. I should have walked off and let it go.She meant well even if it didn't come off well. I apologized but it was a little late for all that.I doubt she will forget anytime soon. I hope we both forget it soon. I also think i have to accept some things in life that are not going to change. It must be God's will and it must be for a reason.I believe i will know one day. It's Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane asking for the cup to be removed but saying His Father's will in the end.Jesus knows about human suffering.He submitted to it freely.For us it is foisted upon us and if we had our way we would escape. St Paul wrote,

‘Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.’

A puzzling quote. An odd quote from scripture. How could Christ's suffering be lacking? Pope John Paul II wrote about all this in his apostolic letter SALVIFICI DOLORIS(ON THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF HUMAN SUFFERING) So mom was a great theologian. She knew what she was talking about.She lived it too. I have never seen anyone endure so much suffering and not complain even a little. She had her bad days but she endured so well that you would not have known how ill she really was. I think the final straw was dad passing away. She died of a broken heart. However, even that she tried to carry herself. i will say this.She had 2 good friends that came to visit her nearly every night when she found she had cancer again. They were wonderful.One has passed away and the other i can't recall the name. I think i would know her if i saw her but the name escapes me. I wish i had told both of them how much that was appreciated. Mom passed in dad's chair.It's where he often sat. It was in front of the window where his hummingbirds used to come. We could see our own apartment from that window. Someone asked me why we moved where we did.It was simple. Mom and dad. She didn't have to come get me.I could go across the street. I was also asked if there were any other surprises. None. Mom had talked to us YEARS ago how her will would be made out. There was nothing i didn't know and i was fine with it. I was just sure at that time it would be years away.Little did i know. Sorry,I digress but it's part of the relationship we had.I also love the new Pope with his emphasis on the dignity of us as persons not based on material wealth. Trust me,in our present culture we all struggle with that temptation. The closer we come to Christ though the less it means.I'm not there,am hoping to arrive. We'll talk about DETACHMENT sometime.Now the topic.Human suffering. It's unavoidable. None of us would ever care to trade with someone else. How does it have meaning if we believe in Christ? How does it have meaning for us as Catholics? When i was living the hedonistic lifestyle(long before Confession)life was about experiences;none of which i wanted to be less than pleasurable.What does St Paul's words mean to people who shove God out of their life? I think from the way i lived you fill it up enough with other things that you don't spend a lot of time thinking about it.Pope Francis touched on that today. Mother Therese said,

"Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people. Let no one come to you without leaving better and happier. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. We realize that what we are accomplishing is a drop in the ocean. But if this drop were not in the ocean, it would be missed."

It may mean offering up what is going wrong in our lives to be that person. I've had any number of things go wrong in my life-some self inflicted-but as time goes on i get how to go on with life. It gets better. It doesn't mean anything has changed. It means i'm ok where I'm at with God because God is ok with where I am for now.I can't change anyone.I can hear mom's words again and again.Offer it up.Thank you mom.You weren't perfect. You did much right,some wrong. It's fine.

THE KEY WORDS. LET GO OF YOUR PLANS.Supper is over. Aide has gone home.Husband went to bed(very tired). Back to EWTN and coverage of Pope Francis at WYD! Kitchen can be cleaned tomorrow.