This is the forty-fourth in a series of previously unpublished reflections from the 1854 spiritual notebook of Paulist Founder, Servant of God Father Isaac T. Hecker. The reflection series is being made public in conjunction with Father Hecker’s cause for canonization.

Lent and Suffering

We have all eternity to enjoy, but only a few moments to suffer, to testify to our sincere and ardent love for our crucified Savior and our God. 

The disciple is not greater than the Master. The one who has no cross is no follower of the crucified. It would be a miracle to find a Christian without a cross, except in heaven. If you avoid your cross or are unwilling to take it up and follow Jesus, you are not worthy to be a disciple.

Our destiny here on earth is this: to conquer the world and ourselves by suffering in imitation of Jesus Christ in order that we might be eternally happy with him forever. The only true success in this life comes from following Jesus Christ. If we for a moment seek success elsewhere, it matters not how high or useful it may appear to us, we are deceived and we live and act in vain for Jesus Christ is the only Way, the whole Truth and the true Life. Therefore we walk astray when we act without Jesus.

A Response from Father Paul Robichaud, CSP

Today’s reflection from Servant of God Isaac Hecker addresses a classic Lenten question: How do we as Christians understand human suffering? Father Hecker begins with the premise that everyone suffers. No matter how successful or secure you are, there is a basic unfairness that penetrates through all our lives as human beings. No one who lives in our world escapes from the reality of suffering. The brokenness of sin in the world seeks to disempower us even further. Because we do not want to suffer, in attempting to escape from it or deny it, we become more broken and needy. The Scriptures, the Church and most especially the sacraments of the Church seek to empower us. Instead of running from sin and brokenness, we call on the power of Christ within our souls. Awakening the spiritual side of ourselves is what Lent is all about. With and in Christ we take on the suffering found in our lives and go through it with the sure knowledge that Christ has already overcome it and that he carries us through these moments. The more we encounter suffering with faith, fear dissipates, hope replaces fear, and we can respond with love. In this sense our response as Christians to the suffering we encounter in our lives both reflects, mirrors and channels the paschal mystery of Christ which we celebrate in Easter.

Father Hecker says, “The disciple is not greater than the Master … It would be a miracle to find a Christian without a cross … If you avoid your cross or are unwilling to take it up and follow Jesus, you are not worthy to be a disciple.” Life is hard and uneven, but as Father Hecker reminds us that while everyone experiences the hardness of life, Christians have a way of contextualizing and transforming their suffering by connecting it to the suffering and death of Christ. As the brothers and sisters of Jesus, our suffering becomes a part of Christ’s suffering of Christ, and through Christ’s suffering God has chosen to redeem the world. May your experience of Lent deepen your faith, strengthen your hope and support your loving response to others.

Hecker’s 1854 Spiritual Notebook:

Servant of God, Isaac Hecker wrote these spiritual notes as a young Redemptorist priest about 1854 and they have never been published. Hecker was 34 years old at the time and had been ordained a priest for five years. He loved his work as a Catholic evangelist. The Redemptorist mission band had expanded out of the New York state, and the missionaries’ national reputation continued to grow. Hecker had begun to focus his attention on Protestants who came out to the missions. To this purpose Hecker began to write in 1854 his invitation to Protestant America to consider the Catholic Church, “Questions of the Soul” which would make him a national figure in the American church.

Hecker collected and organized these notes that include writings and stories from Saint Alphonsus Liguori, the Jesuit spiritual writer Louis Lallemant and his disciple Jean Surin, the German mystic John Tauler, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Theresa of Avila and Saint Jane de Chantal among others. These notes were a resource for his retreat work and spiritual direction. These short thematic reflections demonstrate Hecker’s growing proficiency in traditional Catholic spirituality some ten years after his conversion to the Catholic faith.

Publishing and disseminating the writing of Servant of God Isaac Hecker is the work of the Office for Hecker’s Cause.

Paulist Father Paul Robichaud CSP is Historian of the Paulist Fathers and Postulator of the Cause of Father Hecker. His office is located at the Hecker Center in Washington D.C.

If you have asked Father Hecker to pray for you or another person who is ill and you believe something miraculous has happened, please phone Father Robichaud at 202-269-2519 and tell him your story.