It is quite clear to any reasonable person that we should seek what is good and avoid what is evil in our lives and conduct, and that we should try to get rid of evil wherever it is found. However, the judgment that each of us makes about whether a particular thing or event or experience or form of conduct is good or evil is based on certain criteria. Judgments are based on some principle or conviction, on some accepted idea. The standard by which most people decide how to distinguish good from evil comes from their religion if they are religious and from an implicit or explicit philosophy of life if they are not religious.
We ourselves have the extremely good fortune, for which we should never cease thanking God, of knowing good and evil, of knowing what to seek and what to flee from, through God’s own revelation to us. God has told us what is good and what is evil. And whereas for many people in the world these days, it seems, the standard by which to distinguish good and evil is that of pleasure or pain, we cannot accept that idea. We know that not all pleasurable things are good, not all things that cause us suffering evil.
We have the word of God, His revealed truth to guide us in our life and in our outlook on life and in our philosophy of life. The word of God . . . makes it clear that the sufferings that are inseparable from life on earth and inescapable are not evils that have no value or that have to be avoided at all costs and at all times.
There are some sufferings or forms of distress or discomfort that come to us because we are human beings on this earth subject to the laws of nature and affected by other people, and there are others that come to us precisely because be we are Christians. Those who are faithful to God and to the vocation God has given them, those whose lives are linked with that of Jesus Christ, either as forerunners or followers, are called upon by God to bear some sufferings, just as Jesus did. So suffering and distress are not necessarily signs of failure, nor are they evil as such. . .
We shall not go to heaven despite the sufferings we share with Christ. He did not rise again in spite of His suffering and death, but because of them. In fact He not only said that His followers must be Friends of the Cross, but that if anyone runs away from sacrifice, if anyone does not offer his body as a living sacrifice, if anyone wants to save his life by avoiding the Cross, he will in fact lose his life. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
“The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and when He does, He will reward each one according to his behavior.” If we have renounced ourselves, taken up our cross and followed Christ, we shall receive a reward that is beyond all imagining.
Whenever something we dislike affects us, let us turn it into pure gold by accepting it, taking it up and offering it to God as a sacrifice together with the Cross of Christ. Let us be Friends of the Cross; let us take pleasure in what brings us close to Christ.
The Lord we love and follow is a crucified Lord, and we are not superior to Him. Every time we make the Sign of the Cross we are, or should be, asserting that we are Friends of the Cross and that we are determined to renounce ourselves, take up our cross
. . . and follow Jesus. We will not be made sad by the sufferings of this present life, but by the grace of God turn them into something very good and valuable and holy. We will become part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by our interior attitude to sacrifice in our own life, as well as by our external share in the Mystery of Faith.
