An expression still used today, at least in my circles, is when someone says, Offer it up. Someone may go through a trial or bear a particular suffering and a compassionate person says to them: Offer it up. How do we make sense of this?

Pope Benedict XVI presents action and suffering as a way of learning hope. In Spe Salvi, he speaks about action and through it building the Kingdom of God. We keep in mind that we do not build God’s Kingdom. God is the Master Builder. He builds his Kingdom through the Paschal Mystery of Christ.

Through his emptying and self-gift, the Kingdom of God has been revealed. This is a significant step in understanding action. We do things for God as a response to what God has done for us in Christ.

This is where suffering comes into discussion. It is difficult for us to wrap our minds around human suffering because we are finite and live in a world engulfed by sin. There are many things we can do to reduce the suffering and sooth pain. But to banish suffering is not in our capabilities.

Only Christ can take away suffering. God becomes man to bear our human weakness, to suffer in our stead. Christ is the one who looks at evil with complete resolution and determination and conquers it in his suffering love.

How do we make sense of our suffering and the suffering of Christ? The Holy Father has a beautiful passage where he gives a hint to the answer:

It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.

All my suffering reaches its maturity when it is under the shadow of his cross. I love the people who surround my life in my suffering as if I am seeing them through the eyes of the Crucified One.

It takes a lifetime to comprehend such a mystery of how God suffers with us. It is the great con-solatio of God. God’s consolation is expressed by Augustine: Impassibilis est Deus, sed non incompassibilis – God cannot suffer, but he can suffer with. God’s compassionate love rooted in the Cross is present in all suffering. Life is about embracing this mature love.

Perhaps this is the idea of offering it up. All our suffering is transposed to divine love when it is offered up to the Cross of Christ. This is our great hope.