A tale of two Pauls & the Passionists' Superpower

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you,
and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions,
for the same Body, which is His church."

-St Paul to the Colossians 1:24

Who are the Passionists? October 18 is the feast of St Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionist Order. Both St Pauls united their sufferings with Christ's passion, to emphasize the redemption needed for members of Jesus' church. Their suffering had purpose: they applied it toward strengthening the body of Christ and to provide comfort for suffering believers. Passionists are called to stand in solidarity at the figurative "foot of the cross" of Jesus with Mother Mary. We seek to find meaning in unfixable suffering. The Passion of Christ is transcribed with all souls who carry heavy crosses, and not just physical pain. We include the disabled, sick, dying, grieving, impoverished, the spiritually bereft, the isolated and all who bear the burden of mental illness and addiction. The 2 Pauls' goals were to kiss their crosses while helping others accept their own. Today, our society's attitude misunderstands the meaningfulness of suffering. It is frowned upon in the health care industry, as evidenced by U.S.' abuses of prescriptive and dubious drugs that mask and reject reality. Canada's attitude is outright euthanasia via medically assisted suicide, having alleged nefarious implications. Since its' inception, Canada has catapulted their organ donation rates to 47% of the worlds' organ donation market. In short, the North American agenda no longer includes suffering. What of God's agenda?

The Science of Suffering. Health providers are now expected to remove all suffering. Compassion has been usurped by the pharmaceutical industry as evidenced by direct-marketing to the public. Polypharmacy is now a cause for early death--despite the 4th and 5th commandments. For the younger generations, normalized narcissism has occured through: abortion, euthanasia, stem cell transplants, IVF, mRNA injections, cloning, gene therapy etc. The Catholic Church teaches that suffering, whether through God's active or passive will, started with Original Sin. Jesus Christ came to earth as a man to fix this with the Resurrection. But only after a passion of horrific suffering and death. Therein lies the rub. We too, must suffer and die, as St Paul warns the Colossians above. God said so in Genesis to Grandma Eve and Grandpa Adam as they exited the Garden of Eden. Our test in this life is, what will we do with our suffering? Our objective is higher degrees of holiness. Meanwhile, God gave us the intellect to remedy illness and injury, so we may fix obvious suffering. Yet His commandments require us to do no harm. As scientists drift toward lucrative but unsafe business models, greed and egos climb. Not only is the value of modern suffering sadly misunderstood in a culture devoid of God, it has led to chaos, disaster and destruction of human lives along with societal morals.

St Paul of the Cross. In 1692, Paul was born in Italy as the second of 16 children, 10 of whom died young. As Paul watched most of his siblings die, he was struck by the resilience of his parents as they coped with unbearable sorrows. Paul’s mother especially kept pointing to the Crucifix.  Her message to Paul, became his message.  "Look at the Cross, look at what Jesus has done for us. And look at Mother Mary. That is how much we matter; that is how much Jesus cares." Paul began sharing the message with others as a teenager.  With a group from his local Church, Paul would go out with a large Cross into the streets. Under the Cross, he would talk of God’s extraordinary love, by sending his Son to suffer and die--for us. As Paul matured, he focused on God and sharing God’s message. He experimented with soldiering among other trades and learned all he could. Clarity came on a retreat where he had a vision to establish a brotherhood, whose hearts were shaped by deep contemplation of the Passion and death of Jesus. This message was combined with his mother's suffering and loss of her young family, “Look how much Jesus loves us. Never doubt how much you matter!” It took 20 years for St Paul and his inseparable brother, John Baptiste, to obtain ecclesiastical permission for a Passionist community. He became a great mystic, a dynamic preacher and a confidant spiritual advisor to countless seekers of holiness. He was a dutiful correspondent, mentor to those suffering and an utterly warm and generous human being. It is the DNA of Paul of the Cross that shapes the Passionists to this day. His mantra is still prayed by the Passionists: "May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts.”

Kenosis means self-emptying. Through prayers in the Gethsemane Garden, Jesus united His will the Father's. By accepting and forgiving His enemies, He drank every drop of His assigned cup of passion. This is our quest: to seek our holy grail and drink every drop. Through self-emptying, perfect kenosis creates a spiritual vacuum which allows God to enter our souls. This is the charism of St Paul of the Cross' Order along with mercy. Passionists, including tertiaries, are often science nerds or health providers seeking kenosis-opportunities in patients who suffer. From basic physics principles, we know that energy is never created or destroyed, only converted. Suffering is energy that comes from wounds. Therefore, gifting our suffering to God, through Mother Mary, enables its transformation into something abstractly glorious. Example yields are love, joy, graces, etc., or whatever God decides. Then, the Divine Physicist showers it back upon us, our families or the souls most in need. This charism and superpower is how Passionist founders were elevated to sainthood: St Paul of the Cross, St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Gemma Galgani who bore the stigmata. They wear black 24/7 to mourn our Redeemer's death. Many are discalced--which means self-emptying of shoes and fashion attachments--to embrace the sandals of Christ. The Passionists' secret sauce is helping others find the yes/no switch in the human mindset. If we must suffer toward death anyway, why not convert the energy for good? Below are Biblical examples of suffering towards greatness, some yielding miraculous results.

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Due to Original Sin, God allowed these Biblical characters to suffer--whether through His active or passive will.

Infertility: St Elizabeth, Rachel, Sarah (mothers of Sts. John the Baptist, Joseph/Benjamen, and Isaac)
Loss of Parent: Jesus buried St Joseph
Loss of Spouse: Mother Mary buried St Joseph
Loss of Sibling: Martha & Mary buried their brother Lazarus
Loss of Community: Israelites, Jesus with no place to lay His head
Loss of Freedom: St Peter in chains, St John the Baptist, all imprisoned martyrs
Loss of Children: Abraham/Lot, the Holy Innocents, Mother Mary buried Jesus
Loss of Everything: Moses, Noah, Job, Jesus, Mother Mary
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The devil's superpower--despair. With suffering, comes stress hormones and chemicals that affect the mind, body, soul and spiritual wellness. Constant and repeated self-exposure to traumatic memories leads to denial, anger, bargaining and depression. This dark, emotional chaos can be transformative, with the correct coaching. The sooner God is introduced, especially through confession and the Holy Eucharist, light reenters our lives. If a family can grieve together with God, hope and love sprouts. The challenge is, everyone grieves differently and boomerangs through stages. Solidarity comes from a spiritual consult or holy community using mercy and kenosis for healing. The experienced Passionist can help family members who abuse food, sleep, alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, street drugs, prescriptions or other dopamine-seeking behaviors. The trained Passionist offers alternatives to mitigate the damage. Unbridled stress stimulates the amygdala in the brain to secrete cortisol for fight, flight or freeze. While short term cortisol--a steroid--is helpful in acute battles, long term cortisol is destructive, as are steroids in sports. A continuous cortisol environment creates a storm cloud or fog which interrupts rational thought. Egocentricity and self-pity spike while short-term memory, attention and patience plummets. Self-neglect, mania and/or abuse is the result. Thresholds disappear and lines are crossed. Blame, lashing out and physical harm may follow, to include mortal violence to self or others. This is the exact downward spiral that dark spirits want. They need our energy converted to despair to fuel their hate. With free will, we have 2 choices for energy conversion, which side do we choose?

Accept the Chalice. There is help. Showered with the Holy Spirits' gifts, Passionists look for opportunities to embark on kenosis-journeys toward redemptive suffering. Passionists are hospital chaplains, providers and spiritual staff who visit the homebound, prisons, shelters, the homeless and nursing homes to bring healing. For families and groups, there are Passionist retreat centers. Wherever suffering happens, goals are to locate wounds, convert the trauma, stop evil bombardments and seek safer alternatives to achieve balance. Discerning suffering together, we seek to name it, define it, own it, use it and unite it with Jesus' passion and perhaps, a similar suffering saint. There are patron saints for most causes. Look up the story of the cancer saint--St Peregrine--and walk in his shoes. Consider the Biblical characters listed above. Addicts tap the Venerable Matt Talbot or St Monica as mentors. St Lucy is our eye-girl and so forth. It is a slow, worthy process, but every soul matters. Once the brain and body find balance, kenosis and spiritual holiness can begin. While not every person is willing to redirect, many who exit the cortisol fog can find clarity, discernment of God's will and spiritual growth. Mother Mary's arms are open wide, waiting to provide comfort and safe escort to her Son. Suffering is guaranteed in this life, which leads to one end game with 2 moves. While difficult and with help, we can flip the script on Satan with our fiat.

"Would you have me oppose the will of God?

Our lives are His."  -St Hedwig

Sources: 

Practice and challenges for organ donation after medical assistance in dying: A scoping review including the results of the first international roundtable in 2021 | ScienceDirect.com