During the Cana sessions, when families would gather in that cabin, it was not uncommon for parents to turn to that same plaque and make a remark about how often in the past year Christ had kissed them. They had the same natural aversion to pain that we all experience.

But Catherine, in her genius, knew that the power of pain is transformed when we offer it as a gift to the lover of mankind, Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that we seek pain. But when it comes, especially when it is deep and long-lasting, something indescribable and grace-filled happens through the union of our pain with the cross of Jesus Christ.

Knowing that we live in Christ and Christ lives in us arms us with joy and faith and love.

You who are discouraged, can you not place that discouragement on the altar, and offer it for those who are suffering all over the world?

You who are in fear, can you not lay that fear at the foot of the cross or take it to Mass? In this way your fear can bear fruit to the far corners of the earth for those who are hungry and homeless or do not know God.

You who suffer tension between yourself and another person, will you not give this in silence and hiddenness to Jesus, so that new life and new hope can be born again for someone in need?

We are each united in some mysterious way with the whole Church, with the entire body of Christ throughout the world. In the West, we are prone to look only at our individual suffering. But, bit by bit, the veils between us and truth are falling from our eyes. We’re beginning to see that there is something far beyond ourselves as individuals that is taking place in the world.

I’m hearing again some expressions that were once more common: “remain united to the cross,” “offer it up for the sufferings of Christ.” This indicates that people are seeing more clearly, seeing with the eyes of the Gospel.

Everyone hates pain. Pain in and of itself is an evil. But no one can escape it; all of us are caught up in its mystery. If we want to be emptied, transformed, and divinized, we must, through an act of will, unite our pain with the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Then our pain becomes a gift to others, and also does something powerful and mysterious in the depths of our souls.

— From Inflamed by Love, pp. 72-73, 81-82, available from MH Publications.