Ave Maria Meditations
Why is there suffering? Suffering is the price of love. The hardest thing but the inevitable thing in the suffering of every individual is that he must inflict his own suffering on those who love him. It is love that redeems, love that can heal the world, love that can save it. Suffering has no power in itself; it is only powerful to save when it is caused by love, and when it is the expression of love.
The Mother of Christ loves the world with His love. She gave Him to the world for the love of those whom He loved, those would be born into the world generations hence, those among whom are you and I. Witness the lyrical song of her love for us, ringing down the centuries from the first advent: “From now on all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48). She rejoiced because her Child was to bring joy into the world, to flood the world with His love.
The cause of Christ’s suffering was His love for the world; the suffering He gave to His Mother was the gift of His own love. The increase of Christ’s own grief because of what He must have given her was an increase of Christ’s love in the whole world: the suffering which is a communion of love.
+ Caryll Houselander
