Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Endurance (03/22/04)
TITLE: Patient Endurance By Michele Woellner 03/26/04 |
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I have known and heard about people that have gone through great trials and tribulations. On a human level, a person would have to think, "How can a person possibly endure so much for so long?" On a spiritual level, however, a person understands that it is God who provides them with strength and patient endurance.
Regardless of how much we suffer due to the trials and tribulations in our lives and in the lives of those we love, we must always remember to unite our sufferings with Christ. Jesus was the One who had to endure the most suffering. The scourging, crowning with thorns, and crucifixion and all the physical and emotional pain that Christ suffered is more than any human will ever have to endure. Many who have read the accounts of Christ's sufferings in the book, "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" by Anne Catherine Emmerich have stated that, on a human level, no mortal man would have ever been able to withstand the scourging, crowning with thorns, and crucifixion that Christ had to endure. Humanly speaking, the scourging itself would have been enough to kill any mortal man. We know, however, that Christ was both God and man. Therefore, Jesus was given the endurance and strength that He needed to be scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified while carrying the sins of the world upon Himself and opening up the gates of Heaven to us all.
Let us never grow discouraged in the midst of our daily trials. Let us reflect often that through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, we will obtain the victory through the gift of patient endurance that He freely bestows upon us if we but ask.