Suffering

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:03:04]There are there are and at the end of my book I've got the last part of my book of the seven stars which would be the prophecy of Simeon in which he said behold he will be a sign of contradiction.

[00:03:20]and then through your own heart a sword will pierce. So the thoughts of many will be revealed. That was a sorrow prophecy of all that Mary would have to sorrow in following Christ. The second sorrow of Mary would be the flight into Egypt in which King Herod was trying to massacre Jesus.

[00:03:44]The third sorrow is the fourth joyful mystery. The fifth joyful mystery. Jesus was found in the temple. But he was lost for three long days.

[00:03:57]And as some of the mothers you deal with when they lose their child, I mean they they go berserk. No, even if it's an hour in a supermarket, you know, imagine three three days losing cheese. They couldn't find them. So that was a source of sorrow.

[00:04:14]The other four would be related to the passion of Christ when Christ is carrying the cross and he meets his mother. The fifth would be the crucifixion.

[00:04:26]I don't know if any of you still have your mother's living. My mom's 95. I can't imagine my mom standing nearath seeing me crucifi. I don't I mean my mom's a strong woman. I don't think she'd have enough courage to be there seeing her son shed every drop of his blood. But Mary was there the stabit m she stood at the foot of the cross and she didn't faint.

[00:04:50]And then the six would be maybe some of you have seen the patad of Michelangelo >> where Jesus is lowering into the arms of Mary. I think it's really depicted by Mel Gibson in the Passion of Christ when he's Lord of Mary's uh wiping the uh the wounds of Christ. The seventh would be the separation of the body, the dead body from Mary. Those are the seven sorrows of Mary.

[00:05:24]But um what I'd like to do is um I'd like to talk this evening related to the these seven sorrows and the fourth joyful mystery the um the reality of suffering.

[00:05:48]Okay. the reality of suffering.

[00:05:58]How do how do we cope with suffering?

[00:06:05]We all have to suffer.

[00:06:08]That's part and parcel of the human condition is that suffering is part of our life.

[00:06:22]I like to I like to I love language and I like to create one line there.

[00:06:26]Suffering can either make you better or bitter.

[00:06:29]Yeah.

[00:06:31][clears throat] Like that suffering can make either better or bitter.

[00:06:42]I remember my first year uh when I was studying at Villanova University uh with my compadre compadre Popla we studied together.

[00:06:58][snorts] He was a math major and it was an English major. I call my compadre is um remember one of the one of the first courses I took and this was this was uh about [snorts] 52 years some of you weren't even born yet.

[00:07:22]is uh there was a course on comparative religions and it's been 52 years but I I have a good memory. I remember the course because uh I had never studied all the religions of the world but then that course is a really good textbook which explained the bar bearish religions of the world. We studied um Hinduism and Buddhism and uh Sikism.

[00:07:54]Maybe you've heard of Shintoism of the of the Japanese. You probably never ever heard of Zoroastrianism, which is the religion of the Persians and um uh totemism among the among the Indians.

[00:08:11]then um studying Judaism and uh Protestantism, then Catholicism, very interesting. The only religion that gave a positive interpretation of suffering was Catholicism. Very interesting.

[00:08:33]Not that you you have time to study all the the major, but they they really maybe you've heard of the philopes stoicism. You want to kind of squash the emotions. No. So you don't feel either suffering or joy. No. But only Catholicism gives a positive interpretation to suffering.

[00:08:53]But suffering is is it's neutral. It's it's it's neither good nor bad. It depends on what we do with it.

[00:09:04]When I was a child, those uh those Dominican nuns in New York, we studied with them for about four years.

[00:09:10]West Knight, New York, as well as our good parents, taught us three words that said it all.

[00:09:20]>> Are you listen? Are you listening? Offer it up. Not bad.

[00:09:24]>> Have you heard that before?

[00:09:27]>> What?

[00:09:28]>> No, but really, we kind of laugh. We We laugh at that as being something kind of trivial and kind of childish, but really it's not it's not something trivial or childish. I mean it it summarizes a very profound concept in three words.

[00:09:43]No, offer it up and we have to learn how to do it and uh I have to learn how to do it. I always wish with uh Bishop Solis in LA for quite a few years. Uh you think you have people that suffer here, you go to LA, it's five times as much really.

[00:10:03][clears throat] And the people there, you're kind of blown away at the sufferings that they go through because you're dealing with the biggest dasis in the world with a lot of immigrants and a lot just a lot of suffering and if we don't know how to suffer, we're not going to teach them how to suffer. You know, you can't give what you don't have.

[00:10:23]So um like to talk a little bit about that another experience in um 1976 I was already discerning my vocation finishing my second year at Villanova. I was about to enter into my junior year and um the vocational push was becoming stronger and stronger within me.

[00:10:53]So uh one of my professors uh said in 76 76 you had the eukaristic congress in Philadelphia.

[00:11:07]Maybe you've uh heard the song, you satisfy the hungry heart. That was the theme in 1976. So that that that song came from the Eucharistic Congress of 1976 in Philadelphia.

[00:11:23]Yeah. Yeah. That that that that became maybe it was already sung, but it became really almost world famous. And if you've ever sung it, it's one of my favorites. It's got a lot of uh a lot of verses. Lot of verses.

[00:11:39]Um maybe for Corpus Christi, you can sing that in your parish, you know, it' be very appropriate know for Corpus Christi, bread of finest wheat.

[00:11:48]But I remember going there and um there was a cardinal archbishop, probably never heard of him, Cardinal Croll. He was the archbishop cardinal of Philadelphia back in 76.

[00:12:04]Then there was another visitor who came to the congress and his name was uh he was Archbishop Cardinal Carola.

[00:12:17]Have you ever heard of him?

[00:12:18]>> Yes.

[00:12:20][laughter] >> You're your compadre.

[00:12:26]Right. I was ordained. But he came there and he was he was not pope yet. He as you probably know he was he was he was elected pope in October 78.

[00:12:35]>> 78.

[00:12:36]>> Yeah. It was October 78 that he was uh he was chosen. We had three three popes three popes in about two months.

[00:12:45]>> John Paul the second first died after a month, right? Wait about a month.

[00:12:49]>> 33 >> 33 days. Yeah.

[00:12:52]>> But I don't know if you've ever had the chance to go to Eucharist at Congress. I was just 20 years old. It blew me away.

[00:13:00]Uh the talks I think Fulton Sheen was there too. Mother Teresa I think came.

[00:13:05]Paul V 6 couldn't come because he was uh he was weak but I think he planned to come. Paul V 6.

[00:13:13]Um but outside outside the uh convention center in Philly they had they had uh tables.

[00:13:27]Today the the language that we use today are ministries but we used to call it aposttoates. No today we I don't know if you've ever heard that word apostlate is the way it used to be called. Now we call it ministry.

[00:13:41]I think they're interchangeable. The the language today is basically ministries.

[00:13:45]No, [snorts] I I kind I kind of like the word aposttoate. No, I think we all to each his own, right?

[00:13:53]But outside there was the focal lenini.

[00:13:57]Maybe you heard of them. You had um the uh communion liberation.

[00:14:04]You had um a lot of these the charismatic group back then too. You had Katakis, you had um CIO, Matimony, Familia. A lot of these tables, they were trying to promote their their work. Uh but the thing that touched me most was the following.

[00:14:28]There was a a young man maybe about 28 years old.

[00:14:33]He was sitting at a table in the corner and um he was in a wheelchair.

[00:14:43]He's probably about 28, 29, maybe 30. and he's sitting at the table and um in a big sign the sign said the apostlate of suffering said what the heck is that [clears throat] I I I'd never seen anything like that and given that I was uh I was an English major and I was just devouring the books so I had read I had read St. John of the Cross, uh, the Dark Knight of the Soul.

[00:15:22]I read Sister Joseph Menendez, who's a victim soul of God's Justice, and I had read, um, a lot of the what's called the Ryan Land Mystics, maybe heard of them, of Thomas Kemp's, Julian of Norwich, and The Cloud of Unknowing. So, I was I was just devouring these books right and left.

[00:15:43]Uh so I had been reading up on that that topic of suffering but I now incarnate and I I drew close to the guy and he was alone. There were not too many people visiting his booth and they said what is this?

[00:16:02]And he said well you see I'm in a I'm in a wheelchair. and he said that he got in an accident, car accident and uh he was paralyzed the rest of his life.

[00:16:16]Now today with modern medicine, one of my brothers is is a orthopedic surgeon, graduate from Dartmouth. So today you probably have doctors who could probably probably fix them up, but 50 years ago it was not as advanced as it is today.

[00:16:32]And I said, "Okay, what? Well, what does the sign mean?" Sign means this.

[00:16:39]I've decided that I I've decided through prayer and discernment that God has God has allowed this to happen.

[00:16:53]I did not will it, but God allowed this to happen. in this car accident and I'm I'm paralyzed and it's not going to get any better.

[00:17:05]And I decided instead of instead of complain and get angry at God and bemoone my my bad luck, which is the easiest thing to do e even to even to blame God for this. I decided that I will accept this. Yeah, I will accept this as God's will and I will unite this to God's will and I will unite this to God's will for the sanctification of the church for priests.

[00:17:45]I wasn't even seminarian yet, but I think, wow, if I'm a priest one day, someone like this offering is suffering for me. A lot of wind in my sales ventin popa, as they say in Spanish, a wind in my sails. Wow.

[00:18:00][cough and clears throat] So that was after all my reading on John the cross and the victim's soul, there was incarnate that this person decided that he would accept that So, suffering.

[00:18:24]Have all of you visited hospitals and nursing homes? I have maybe even more than you.

[00:18:34]How much wasted suffering?

[00:18:39]Right.

[00:18:42]A lot a lot they they suffer but suffering can make you better or bitter.

[00:18:53]Bitter if if it's all horizontal.

[00:18:58]Remember there's horizontal there's a vertical but this suffering can be united to the cross has infinite value. One more step. Unite to the cross and to the mass. The mass.

[00:19:16]The mass is not simply a meal.

[00:19:20]The mass is Calvary. Ah, my friends. The sacrifice of Calvary is renewed every time we as priests celebrate the mass.

[00:19:35]Mass has infinite value.

[00:19:41]Okay, brother P, I'm ask you to correct me if I'm wrong.

[00:19:45]As I said, I celebrate my 40th anniversary just about 10 days ago. So, I'm not the new guy in the block. No.

[00:19:55]But when I celebrate mass, it's the high point of my life.

[00:20:01]And I'll usually make a holy hour before maybe earlier preparing me at least implicitly for my mass by making my holy hour in which I'm loading on the altar all my intentions. Sometime I think that the that altar is going to collapse because I put so many intentions on that altar.

[00:20:24]Hasn't happened yet though.

[00:20:26]I load all these intentions on the altar.

[00:20:36]This is one of my intentions. Correct me now. Okay. Say, Lord, okay, you're infinite.

[00:20:43]You said ask and you receive. Seek and you'll find. Knock with the door be open. You're infinite.

[00:20:49]Read Fina. What did Jesus say to Fina?

[00:20:53]I'm suffering be because people don't ask me.

[00:20:57]Ask with bold confidence.

[00:21:03]Ask with bold confidence. Ask.

[00:21:08]So what I do, correct me now.

[00:21:11]I say, Lord, in this mass, I pray as a result of this mass a million souls [snorts] will be saved.

[00:21:22]Am I doing wrong?

[00:21:29]>> Hello.

[00:21:34]>> And sometimes I hear what's called interior occution where the Lord says ask for more.

[00:21:41]Ask for more.

[00:21:43]God is using you priests to be as John Paul II says co-redemptrics.

[00:21:50]He he wants to collaborate with us to save the world.

[00:21:55]So when you celebrate your mass, don't be don't be afraid to ask the Lord for what goes way beyond the wild your wildest imagination.

[00:22:09]Don't be afraid.

[00:22:13]And honestly, I I I I I think the Lord is happy with that petition. I do because I'm asking him for a lot and it's I'm a sinner just like all of you. I go to confession every one or two weeks. I always have my confession.

[00:22:32]But uh what I do is I I I really try to trust God.

[00:22:38]I really want to trust and place my confidence in God. Why not? And if you go through the diary of St. Christina, what what is the biggest sin?

[00:22:47]Biggest sin is not trusting in God's love and mercy. That's his biggest sin.

[00:23:02]Father Benedict Rochelle, we got a priest here that was with Father Benedict Rochelle, one of your one of your spiritual directors. No. Well, I've heard I've heard many talks of father goshelle, read some of his writings and very good man.

[00:23:18]He said that if Judas the Scariot would were to have repented all throughout the world, we have churches with the name St. Judas the penitant. Okay, father gochelle.

[00:23:31]All throughout the world, the name of the church will be St. Judas the penitent because he repented and God forgave him.

[00:23:41]Father Tim Gallagher will often say that quoting one of the psalms, God is slow to anger and rich in mercy.

[00:23:52]We are quick to anger and slow to mercy.

[00:23:54]Right?

[00:23:56]Sometimes, right?

[00:23:58][laughter] We explode and then to forgive. It takes a little while after we simmer down. No.

[00:24:04]Whereas God God forgives in a heartbeat.

[00:24:08]Yeah.

[00:24:11]You hear me?

[00:24:12]>> He forgives in a heartbeat.

[00:24:16]Soon as this soon as a sinner begs for mercy, there's a movement of of begging for mercy, God forgives. Just like that.

[00:24:25]How great is our God?

[00:24:29]Aren't you Aren't you proud and happy to be Catholics? Aren't you proud and happy to be priests?

[00:24:35]Silence. Oh boy.

[00:24:39]We should we should be even though hey we're not we're not worthy. I'm not. You aren't either.

[00:24:46]But God chose us. Might even call a mly grow group of individuals, right? But he chose us because he loves us and he's going to give us the grace to do great things if we trust.

[00:25:02]But on this uh on this topic of of suffering, we all suffer.

[00:25:14]But let's let's learn let's learn to offer it up.

[00:25:20]Let's learn to put it on the altar.

[00:25:24]It's interchangeable. the the cross to the altar is the same thing because every time the the mass you got Jesus on the cross it's invisible but it's real and I I wonder how many priests have forgotten about that you know according to canon law studying canon law lurggically you have to have the cross on the altar do you know that go to certain liberal parish they don't have the cross on the altar that's wrong and I think the reason why and you have the cross behind you because sometimes we forget what's happening. So if we see the cross there right before us when sometimes I lift up the host I simultane I look at the cross and I recognize yes Lord you that's you right now I thank you for suffering for me for all these people thank you in the depths of my heart.

[00:26:24]So you might, you know, uh this may surprise you, but sometimes sometimes when I'm going through suffering and and I I go through suffering maybe more than you people is I will go before the blessed sacrament. I do my holy hour before the blessed sacrament and I will just use a New York expression. Spill my guts.

[00:26:55]The way New Yorkers speak.

[00:26:58]Spill my guts.

[00:27:00]I will just let it out. Maybe with a cup of tears. I will just open up and say, "Lord, I've got this pain. Lord, this project failed. Lord, this person doesn't like me. [laughter] Lord, I just I just I just go through that one to one categorically, you know, afterward problems not problems are not solved.

[00:27:29]But I recognize I'm not alone.

[00:27:32]I'm not alone.

[00:27:37]I've already quoted it two times. I'll quote it again.

[00:27:42]And this Friday, the bishops will be consecrating the whole country, whole Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart this Friday, which is the feast day.

[00:27:53]>> Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:27:55]>> Okay.

[00:27:58]>> Okay. I'm I'm jumping the gun. Okay.

[00:28:00]Sorry. I'm I'm Thank you for that fraternal correction. Okay. [laughter] But this is a passage. Come to me all of you are weary and I will give you rest.

[00:28:12]Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I'm meek and humble of heart.

[00:28:16]You'll find rest for your souls because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[00:28:22]That seem to be paradoxical.

[00:28:25]Do you ever see it in the Philippines there? Those animals with a yoke on you and the nature of a yoke. It's not easy.

[00:28:32]It's it's heavy and it's cumbersome.

[00:28:36]It's man torpe it's clumsy. It's not it's not comfortable. Why why is it that Jesus says that? Because we have we have to carry the yoke.

[00:28:50]But we shouldn't carry the yoke by ourselves.

[00:28:54]Carry the yoke with Jesus Christ.

[00:28:58]And the yoke he's talking about for us is the cross.

[00:29:03]Is the cross.

[00:29:08]Now when your your people you come your people come to you with tears and they're suffering and they come to you and do you say do you say to them I will pray for you do you really or not sometime we just say it as a cliche no a pious platitude but that's important H what I tell the people is okay at I've got the mass at 6:00 in the evening.

[00:29:42]Okay. I tell them okay I already have one mass intention but I can I have your private mass intention. I will place you on the altar and when I lift up the host and I lift up the chalice I'll lift up your suffering to Christ on the cross and he will console you. You'll be surprised how many people are consoled with that.

[00:30:04]You'd be surprised.

[00:30:06]Sometimes there's a two or three minute conversation, but that can turn that person's despair into hope.

[00:30:20]Have you ever done a funeral? Not yet.

[00:30:24][clears throat] [laughter] Do you take advantage of that time? And that's a that's a that's a ripe time for graces of conversion.

[00:30:40]When I was there with Father Larry, especially the Hispanic masses, Father Larry would ask me to do the mass and Father John and Father Greg. I would say, you know, your relative died, but maybe maybe we got to get him out of purgatory and maybe depends upon your going to confession and communion. Two lines of two lines of 20 people ready to go to confession.

[00:31:04]I know I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm crafty. I'm I'm I'm clever. I am. No, because you know they're really ripe in that moment.

[00:31:11]Emotions are very ripe. Take advantage of it like the Mormons do, right? Like the Jehovah Witnesses do. They they take advantage of times when people are very vulnerable. I mean that Mormons are sharp.

[00:31:26]They're really sharp. They take advantage of it. We should do the same and bring souls to God.

[00:31:33]But let me tell you, I I do funerals, too. Maybe more than you.

[00:31:38]But I I I'll tell you what I've been doing the past couple years.

[00:31:44]And this is uh usually the 10-minute 8 10 minute homaly I'll give is um I will ask them after Jesus, who is the person that suffered most in this world?

[00:32:01]And most of them don't know what to say.

[00:32:03]I think you know what? He was a blessed mother.

[00:32:07]>> They usually don't know what to say.

[00:32:08]They say the person suffered most in this world after Jesus. No one can compare to Jesus. He's God. But the blessed mother suffered more than anyone by far.

[00:32:20]And more delicate the nature, the more the person suffers. We tend to be kind of coarse, obtuse at times whereas Mary was very, very delicate. The more delicate you are, the more you suffer.

[00:32:33]Mary suffered. Did you ever think about this? Mary suffered. She lost her husband.

[00:32:40]Have you ever done a meditation on that?

[00:32:41]Probably never.

[00:32:44]Father Don Don Callaway, thanks be to God for that book that he wrote on consecration to St. Joseph. Right. Mary lost St. Joseph.

[00:32:54]He was the greatest husband in the world.

[00:32:58]I'm not going to say her heart was broken, but she must have suffered a lot.

[00:33:04]And what about Jesus?

[00:33:08]Many of us have siblings. Mary had only one biological son. That was Jesus Christ.

[00:33:17]She witnessed the death of her husband and now she witnesses the death of her only son.

[00:33:27]Okay. Now, here's a key point.

[00:33:31]Preaching to our people.

[00:33:34]Are you listening?

[00:33:37]When we suffer without God, we fall into depression. That happens. And with us, too.

[00:33:46]I repeat, we suffer without God.

[00:33:49]Depression.

[00:33:51]We suffer with God. No depression.

[00:33:55]Deep sorrow, but in the depths there's peace and hope. That's the blessed mother. You hear me?

[00:34:04]>> Hello?

[00:34:05]>> Mary did not suffer depression.

[00:34:08]She did not.

[00:34:11]But sorrow and pain, no one beyond Jesus suffered more. But Mary, in the very depths of her heart, she had peace.

[00:34:21]She had peace and the virtue of hope.

[00:34:24]So I I invite you to talk to your people about that reality and I'll tell them we have a lot of Mexicans with us. Our lady gualupe. No big image of later Guadalupe. I'll tell them when you go home after the burial go in front of our lady Gualupe and you have to become Juan Diego. Okay? You'll become Juan Diego.

[00:34:45]Remember Juan Diego? What did he do? I mean, he talked to me, "Hey, my my my my uncle's dying."

[00:34:53]And Juan Diego, what did what did a lady go Lopez say? [snorts] No. No.

[00:35:03]No. Those are the words of a lady in Spanish.

[00:35:08]Do not worry. Am I not your mother? I have you in the crossing of my arms.

[00:35:12]Right. You are you are also in my shadow. You are in I said wake me regasso the opening of my my apron. I think it would be literally translated.

[00:35:25]Those are the words of our lady Guadalupe. I tell them now you have to be Juan Diego. Go and talk with our lady Guadalupe. Offer her your tears and your tears will be turned into hope and joy.

[00:35:38]Amen.

[00:35:41]So, uh this is the this is the reality of it's the reality of suffering and I think we as we as priests uh we have to know how to suffer ourselves but also we have to know we have to help our people suffer.

[00:36:03]Sometime my friends we just have to sit sit down with them and let them cry and sometime we can't say that much.

[00:36:14]Just sit down there and let them weep.

[00:36:17]Let them weep.

[00:36:20]You know what that is? The word is compassion. Compassion is a compound Latin word. Kumacio.

[00:36:29]What does that mean? Kum pacio. Kum means with, pacio means suffering, suffering with.

[00:36:39]So um I I I had 10 other topics but when I was praying I thought well this is this is the topic I wanted to share with the priest this evening. Was this useful?

[00:36:49]>> Yes.

[00:36:50]>> Yeah. Because we suffer sometime what do we do?

[00:36:54]>> Foot and Sheen's definition. We're listeners Foot and Sheen. You know what his definition is for suffering? I mean for for the priest he says the priest is the victim who offers the victim and he's actually written two books.

[00:37:11]He's written two books on the priesthood. I'm listening to one now on formed. I do a lot of audio listening.

[00:37:17]It's called the priest is not his own and the other one is those mysterious priests. Those are the two books written by fenshin. The priest is not his own. I have put it off the past 10 years because I'm afraid. I I know where he's heading. But now that I've matured a little bit more, priest of 40, I'm ready to to enter into the reality of being willing to suffer with Christ.

[00:37:45]But never forget, my friends, the pascal mystery. Without Good Friday, there's no Easter resurrection. So it's all involved in the pascal mystery, the passion death, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[00:38:01]So uh let's offer our sufferings, place it on the altar of the cross, and we'll be instrumental in saving hopefully millions of souls. Amen.

[00:38:12]>> Amen.

[00:38:13]>> In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[00:38:17]>> Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy wom Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us s the glory be to the father, the son, the holy spirit as it was.

[00:38:37]>> Father, the son, holy spirit. God bless and have a good night.

[00:38:41]>> Good night.