Suffering as the Key to Heaven

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Lent (B Cycle)

On October 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI canonized a woman by the name of Anna Schaeffer who lived from 1882 to 1925 in Mindelstetten, Germany. Her father died when she was about fourteen years old. She dropped out of school and went to work as a maid to help her family. When she was nineteen years old, she was working as a laundress. One day, while trying to reconnect a broken stove pipe in the laundry, she fell into a vat of boiling water, severely burning her legs. More than thirty surgical procedures followed, but despite the doctor’s perseverance, the skin grafts never healed. She never regained her mobility and spent the rest of her life bedridden. She had hoped as a young girl to enter religious life, but God had a different plan for her.

Despite the pain she endured, she never lost her optimism and grew in her devotion and faith in God. A local abbot brought her the Eucharist each day. In one of her letters, she wrote: "I cannot write by pen how happy I am every time after Holy Communion. Ah, I forget my earthly suffering and the longing of my poor soul draws me every moment to adore my God and Savior hidden in the Blessed Sacrament!" rather than sit idly in bed, she spent her hours knitting clothes for children and writing letters to her friends and the many townspeople who came to visit her. Her letters became treasures the townspeople cherished. She considered her suffering, her writing, and her ability to knit clothes for her friends the three "keys" by which she could enter Heaven.

She eventually died after years of pain and suffering of colon cancer. After her death it became common to visit her grave to have prayers answered. Since 1929, more than 15,000 miracles attributed to such prayers have been reported. In 1998, 551 miracles allegedly obtained through her intercession were recorded in the parish of Mindelstetten. Anna Schaeffer, a simple laundress, came to realize that the Cross was the key to heaven.

If we were to count up the many different references to suffering that occur in the Gospels, we would find that the Gospel of St. Mark mentions suffering more than the other three Gospels combined. It is so pervasive a theme that, as one scholar wrote, the cross casts its shadow in every episode of this Gospel. Today we read the traditional story of the Second Sunday of Lent, the Transfiguration of Jesus. In the verses immediately preceding this story, Jesus says to his disciples: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Six days later, he leads Peter, James and John to the heights of Mt. Tabor and is transfigured before them. Afterwards, as he leads them back down the mountain, he cautions them not to reveal what they have seen until he rises from the dead.

St. Mark crafts this scene with the familiar bookends or the Cross and the Resurrection. They are inseparable. The purpose of Lent is to lead the faithful to full participation in the Paschal mystery; so we must focus our gaze on the Cross.

In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul uses the language of the law courts. One characteristic of the courts is that there are two sides to every case; one is in favor of it, and one is against it. A second example of juridical influence is in the content of Paul’s questioning. He wonders who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones, who will condemn them, who will justify them. He identifies God as a judge. The first question asked is an a fortiori argument, moving from the greater to the lesser: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” His manner of argumentation is rhetorical questioning. These are not queries seeking information; rather, they are questions with obvious answers. These arguments lead us to the unequivicable conclusion. Though suffering may enter our lives, it cannot separate us from the love that God has for us. God proves that love by sending his Son to suffer and die for us. Jesus leads us to the Cross where we will be vindicated and released from the pain of this life to the glory of the next. Suffering is one key to heaven.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator