"Offer it up!"

When Mom and I were in the waiting room the other day, she was complaining a little bit about something or other and to make her feel better I tried to make a joke by telling her, "My mom, when I was little and wasn't feeling well used to tell ME to offer it up!" She smiled at my suggestion; one of those, "Well, whaddya know, the kid learned somethin' after all" types of smiles.

And wouldn't you know it, the way the Spirit moves in my life, I heard a talk about "offering it up" on the radio today. I had to smile at His sense of humor when dealing with me. I was saying it to Mom in (semi)jest, but He wanted to let me know that there really is such a thing as redemptive suffering.

There were a few things about the practice that I never really thought about before. As I meditated on it today during my rosary (and the topic fit right in with the Sorrowful Mysteries, by the way), I came away with a few revelations about myself.

First, when I offer something up, I am usually offering up some ache or pain. And I'm not really offering up " suffering"; I am offering up the ache or pain in the hopes it will go away. "Suffering" denotes a period of time. If an ache or pain comes on quickly and leaves just as quickly, is it suffering? Or just discomfort? And am I really "offering it up" for the benefit of the poor souls in Purgatory or for my own selfish reason that I just don't want to feel bad. I don't doubt that the graces gained by offering up my aches and pains are put to good use in helping those in Purgatory, but after offering up these pains, I usually forget about the discomfort, and, by extension, the reason I offered them up in the first place.

Second, when we were taught as children that redemptive suffering helped "the poor souls in Purgatory", it made Purgatory sound like a bad place. Hey! Everybody in Purgatory is going to go to Heaven! How does that make them "poor" souls?--they are eventual saints! The way I look at it is that if my suffering is turned into prayer and "buys a ticket" out of Purgatory for someone, when they "make the big time" they can return the favor. And their intercession will be a lot stronger for me than mine was for them!

The last thing on this subject is that I believe that those who have long illnesses or suffering here on Earth may be in Purgatory already. By the time Our Good Lord calls for them, they'll have already completed their temporal punishment for their forgiven sins and earned their ticket straight into Jesus' heart!

What about those who don't know Jesus? They suffer as well, don't they? Is their suffering a Purgatorial experience as well? I believe it can be. We say the rosary for the conversion of souls. We say the Divine Mercy for the salvation of mankind. Who else but God could come up with a fool-proof plan like this one to make sure all of His children come home? It boggles my mind.

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Post script:
I hope the above blog made sense. I am really tired today. I was up early yesterday morning and planned on going to bed early last night, but I came up with the bright idea of reading "selected" passages of the Bible as I said my rosary. While trying to "select" just the right passages to meditate on, I ended up reading (and I mean reeeealllly reading) all 28 chapters of "ACTS"!, and didn't get to sleep until about 2am, then got up again this morning at 6. I'm sure He didn't mean to make me "punch drunk" by inpiring me to continue reading, but that was the result. (ha ha)