Hungering for Suffering
[You must] long for food as you long for the cross and long for the cross as you long for food. (OOCC, II, p.137)
Just as healthy food is vital for physical development of the human person, in the same way suffering is essential for the spiritual life of a Christian. Since suffering is so essential for true Christian perfection, in the perception of St. Vincent Pallotti, he wished that every Christian would develop a spiritual attitude of hungering for the cross. He recommended that his followers place in their dining rooms the following words: “Long for food as you long for the cross and long for the cross as you long for food.” This would remind them of the importance of suffering in their Christian lives as they take food everyday, thereby enabling them to give equal importance to the acceptance and living out of their daily sufferings joyfully. In his own personal life, St. Vincent constantly longed for sufferings. In his prayers, he often asked God that he might suffer greatly, so that he would be like Jesus who suffered all forms of ignominy for the salvation of humankind. It was in this spirit that he undertook a number of physical disciplines and penance such as sobriety and abstinence in eating and drinking and the use of cords, strips of leather or balls with iron points to beat himself. He even at times sought the help of others to inflict physical pain on himself. Since St. Vincent believed in the power of suffering to purify himself and make him ready for Christ, he undertook some extreme measures of physical discipline.
Do I accept the value of suffering in my life as a Christian? Do I have a desire to suffer for Christ? Do I acknowledge the purifying power of suffering? Do I believe that suffering makes me ready to accept Christ in my life?
But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Gal. 6: 14)