“The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected” Lk 9:22

Who wants to be rejected? I feel like in life we do everything we can to not be rejected. We do not want to be rejected from sporting teams, from colleges, from social groups, and most importantly from the opposite sex. There have been times in my life that I have avoided asking someone out because of the rejection that could follow.  Or most importantly I have not stood up for Christ because of the suffering that could follow. But the question remains: Is the suffering and rejection worth it in life? Is my suffering being united to the suffering of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Blessed be He, Who came into the world for no other purpose than to suffer.” – St. Theresa of Avila

Jesus came into the world to take on suffering itself. So I just found out a few years ago that in the time of Christ, the Crucifixion was the worst way to die. The Romans would only kill people this way if they were not a Roman citizen. So if you would have mentioned a cross, people would think immediately of pain and suffering and total darkness. But what do you think of if we mention a cross today? Jesus took this symbol and made it the face of Christianity. Wow- the symbol of joy has become the Cross of Christ!

So what I am getting at is… Jesus can take our worst sufferings in life and make them beautiful if we simply give them over to Him. And a great way to begin?! GO TO CONFESSION OFTEN!!!!! Confession is a time when Jesus continually pours His love and mercy out upon us. So my challenge for you this Lenten Season is to go to confession regularly—at least once every two weeks. I promise it will change your life.

There was a man who went to confession every week and after a few years of doing this he said to the priest, “I am tired of coming here each week and confessing the same sins.” The priest replied to him, “What? Do you want new ones”?!

Just remember that in the midst of every suffering, we should always see the light of Easter Sunday.

-Mark Joseph