in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ
on behalf of his body, which is the church
These words from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians are part of the lectionary for this sixteenth Sunday in ordinary time and it gives me great joy to reflect on these words that over the past year have carved a special place in my heart.
The fear of, and the flight from, pain is one of those basic emotions that unites all humanity. No one wishes to suffer pain. And much philosophical questioning has engaged with the question of pain. If there is a God, and this God is love, then why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Even if, pain is a result of sin, why is it that the innocent suffer? Should not a caring and loving God spare and protect the innocent from pain?
Catholicism offers what I would like to call, an economy of pain, to help us understand the simultaneous existence of pain in the world and the presence of a merciful, loving God who actively intervenes in history.
In this understanding, all pain and suffering is the result of sin, caused by the sin of our first parents, and then subsequently all the generations that followed them. Even as we descended deeper and deeper into sin, God waited for the right moment until He could send His son, who through his passion, death and resurrection, did battle with the effects of sin. He resisted temptation, that is, he did not succumb to sin, and triumphed as a human being, making it possible for us to break the power of sin and reconcile ourselves with divinity. Henceforth, pain is not merely the domain of sin and the devil. On the contrary, pain can now be redemptive. Like Our Lord and Master who died on the cross for love of humanity, we too can offer up our suffering, uniting ourselves with His sacrifice on the cross, offering our pain as reparation for sin.
Some imagery that might help us contemplate this mystery. One of the challenges I face when contemplating the sorrowful mysteries is at the third: the crowing with thorns. How does one understand this mystery? A few days ago, when I encountered an image of Our Lady of Fatima, some part of this mystery fell into place.
Describing her vision of Our Lady in Fatima on June 13, 1917, Lucia, the visionary of Fatima, indicated that “In front of the palm of Our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns, which pierced it.” With this information we can now make more sense of the Crown of Thorns.
Remember that the wounds that Our Lord suffered in the course of His passion persisted in His glorified and resurrected body. This allows us to see the Crown of Thorns, therefore, as more than some passing torture, but integral to His Passion and Resurrection. In this light, and that of the vision of Our Lady, we can see that the crown of thorns is the crown that Our Lord shares with those of us who, like His mother, willingly offer our sufferings to join those of His. In other words, Our Lord offers to us a crown of thorns, which, if we accept it, becomes for us the crown of martyrdom which we receive at the time of our judgment.
We are now potentially better able to understand the words of St. Paul. In the face of every trial and suffering we face, we have a choice. We can accept the pain, for love of Our Lord, assuming it as a part of His Passion which we would like to share in. We accept this crown of thorns, this cross, not merely for our own sakes, but for the sake of the entire Church which is the mystical body of Our Lord.
In Her apparition in Fatima on August 19 Our Lady instructed the little visionaries: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them.” If we make the words of St. Paul to the Colossians our own, we could well be one of those who prevent souls slipping into hell. May Our Lord grant us the grace to be so.
(This homily was prepared for a virtual audience in the hope that you will offer a prayer for the soul of my aunt Winifred Maria Menezes, who passed away on July 15, 2025.)
(Image reference: Saint Catherine Of Siena Receives The Crown Of Thorns, Alessandro Casolani via Fine Art America.)