Sunday, we celebrated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. In his crucifixion, we see the ultimate act of “offering it up.” In his passion and death on the cross, Jesus offered up his life in its entirety. When my mom would say, “offer it up,” I didn’t really know the full extent of what that meant, but I got the sense that I should offer up my unpleasantries (complaints) to God our Heavenly Father, just as Jesus offered his immense suffering, without complaining. To offer up our sufferings is to unite what we are going through (without complaining) to almighty God in union with the passion of our Lord Jesus. This last part is key. We offer up things for salvific purposes – in reparation for our own sins, for the conversion of others, peace in the world, healing in relationships and for the greater glory of God.
In the first reading from Sunday’s Mass from the Book of Numbers, we read: “With their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses…” Complaining is almost a reflexive response to anything that troubles us. We complain about the weather – it’s too humid, too windy, too many cloudy days. We complain about the price of gas, the price of eggs, and the price of everything going up. We complain about not sleeping well, about being too busy, about the slowness of mail delivery. As a spiritual exercise, pay close attention to what you complain about, and how frequently that happens.
Consider this: Is the following statement a complaint or statement of fact? “Every traffic light on the way to work this morning was red.” While it might be a fact, if spoken, it is probably also a complaint. Frequently our conversation with others includes our voicing some complaint, some disappointment, some frustration about one thing or another. Imagine, then, if we were to skip the comment and “offer up” whatever annoys or disappoints us. More than teaching me to stop complaining about everything, I think my mom knew that to “offer it up” would draw me closer to our Lord just as his sufferings united him more to his Heavenly Father.
To this day, I often catch myself complaining first before I remember to offer up for some intention the trouble, pain, inconvenience or hurt feelings as they are taking place. But when I stop and analyze why I was complaining, it is usually for selfish purposes. Oddly enough, we take a strange pleasure in complaining. We justify the habit of complaining or griping about something by calling it “venting.” Yet, imagine what spiritual benefits we might receive if we were to “offer up” that about which we were “venting,” what grace we might receive.
To offer something up is not simply to endure the trouble, pain, disappointment, injustice, injury or distress, but to “enter into it” with purpose – so as not to “waste it.” Offering something up is an intentional act of cross-bearing. It is the purposeful decision to “give it to Jesus” so that for us his yoke becomes easy and his burden light. On the other hand, complaining is a kind of rejection of the cross, an unwillingness to draw near to the Lord through suffering. Offering up what troubles us allows the Lord to draw us into deeper intimacy with His Most Sacred Heart, if only we might be willing to seek the unfathomable riches of divine intimacy.
Our modern culture would have us believe that there is no good to be found in suffering. Yet it was the Lord’s great suffering that redeemed us. What a sublime gift that the world does not understand. Thus, when we resolve to suffer all things for the love of God, there is a redemptive quality to the experience. Uniting our inconveniences, disappointments, frustrations, burdens and sorrows to the cross of Jesus allows us to experience his abiding love, which transforms hurts and disappointments into loving intimacy.
For many years I have offered to God the prayer known as “The Morning Offering.” It begins with these words, “O Lord, I offer you this day all my prayers, works, joys, sorrows and sufferings, in union with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate heart of Mary….” This time-honored prayer of the Church teaches us to begin our day with the specific intention of offering to God all that is about to take place today. This prayer is a daily reset of our attitude – to undergo all that is about to take place for a specific intention – to bring honor and praise to God. With this prayer, our day has a purpose and a mission. The “Morning Offering” helps us curb our complaining.
Our mothers probably handed on the advice their mothers once gave them – to offer our disappointments, hurts, sorrows, sufferings and discouragements, that we might check our attitudes about life and our unspoken expectations, especially as they are revealed in the patterns of our complaining. Let us place all that we suffer, however profound or trivial, at the foot of the cross, so that yoked with Jesus we might endure all things for love of Him.
