SUFFERING-PUNISHMENT? SACRIFICE?

Yes, Jose, not just Filipinos but MANY others

This is Holy Week.  This is the time when we will relive the passion and death of the most famous martyr of all, Jesus Christ, Only Son of the Almighty God, Creator of all.  We will relive this experience of His because both He and His Heavenly Father commanded us to do so.
His Father first, just before He was about to lead His Chosen People out of Egyt where they had been held as slaves for three plus centuries. (Exodus 12)  Then His Son, just before He was about to lead us away from the slavery of sin where we had been held for inumerable centuries.  Both gave us first the ritual and then the everlasting command, "You will do this in perpetuity/You will do this in memory of Me."

It is to be noted that neither time was an invitation to relentless comfort and easy living.  Both times we were pointed in the direction of the harsh realities of life, adversity of many kinds through which we must pass on the way toward the eternal reward. It is also to be noted that from about page 3 or 4 of  God's message to us(Genesis 3), we travel though one hardship (sacrifice) after the other.  We only have to absorb the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Naomi, Deborah, Gideon, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and the thousands of others who have followed them in obedience to the call from Jesus to "pick up your cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9; 23-24)

So often I hear or read words of blame aimed at God. "Why do I or anyone else have to suffer so much?  If God loves me that much, why does He make me suffer?  The answer to that is not too difficult to find.  We suffer because we are no better than He.  He, in and through His Son suffered.  He, in and through His loving, sinless creature, Mary, suffered.  If beings at that level of perfection suffered, should I expect to be any different?  No, of course not.  They suffered out of a sense of sacrifice, of pure offering as a life lesson to us all.  If we deserve it, so be it.  Make it a sacrifice no matter what.  If we don't "deserve" it, then we join Jesus and collaborate in His Passion for the eternal good of the Communion of Saints.  We must go through life side by side with the God who requires that we collaborate with Him out of obedience to His Will.  He knows and we know that our calling as His collaborators guides us through some tip-toeing through tulips and some hacking through the briars.  Like the great saints who have gone before us, let's do it and stay happy that what we do is for a divinely ordained reason.

So, when you look at what is left of me as I lay there in a pine box, don't waste your time crying because you'll know that I, like everyone else got to be there the hard way, just like everyone else.