My Father and I returned to the question of uniting suffering to the Cross. He brought to my mind something that I read somewhere about our offered suffering completing what was lacking in the Cross. That didn’t make sense to me. Wasn’t the Cross perfect? How could it be lacking in anything? My Father then showed me the perfection that was Jesus. His nature was both human and divine. In the Cross, humanity and Divinity were in perfect accord. God’s great “plan” is for all humanity and Divinity to be in accord - God and man working together in all things. The perfection of the Cross makes it possible for God and man to again be partners, as it were. It healed the rupture in the relationship that sin caused. It made it possible for future sacrifices to be holy.

This much I could accept and understand. However, I still can’t reconcile the concept of man filling in a gap in the Cross (as if redemption were an ongoing process) with the Ultimate Sacrifice that the Cross was. I need to talk to my Father more about this.

Continued:

My Father didn’t wait until my next formal prayer period to open my eyes about what is lacking in the Cross. He chose to speak to me while I said my Rosary. What is lacking in the Cross, itself, is man’s acceptance of it. To accept it is to live it. He made it clear to me that Redemption is not the same as reparation. Jesus died so that sins could be forgiven. Forgiveness does not mean that the effects of sin are undone. If I stole a dollar, then asked for forgiveness, I would still have to pay back the dollar, even though Jesus bought my forgiveness on the Cross. (1)

To further clarify this, my Father gave me the visual image of an area of darkness and light fluctuating back and forth. Sin brings more darkness into the world. Holiness drives back the darkness with light. We are going to suffer anyway. What we do with that suffering affects the fluctuation of dark and light. If we accept it patiently, offering it to our Father, as Jesus did on the Cross, it becomes something holy through the Cross. This adds to the light in the world. If we let it make us bitter or hateful, or even just impatient and cross with others, we add to the darkness. Thus, through the offering of suffering, we can make amends for the sins we have committed, or for the sins of those who will never make amends for their own sins. Redemption, the Cross, was a once-and-for-all event; reparation is ongoing.

(1) Spiritual director: You were given a good insight!