Black Saturday

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go anoint Jesus...

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side... he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here."

- Mark 16:1, 5-6

There is no doubt that Jesus experienced excruciating pain... But Jesus did more than merely experience human pain. He transformed it. By offering his pain for others - for you and me - he filled even senseless pain with meaning. And that meaning is love, unconditional love. Jesus was totally innocent, yet he willingly accepted his passion and death out of love for us - all of us. In this way he models what we can do with or pain. We can unite it with Jesus' suffering and endure it out of love for others. Jesus' pain, as well as our pain, has little meaning without this unconditional love.

The cross and the resurrection. Suffering and loving. Fr. Demetrius summarizes it well in these words: "The suffering of Jesus was intense, but it was not his suffering that saved the world; it was his loving."

- Melannie Svoboda
[ With the Dawn Rejoicing: A Christian Perspective on Pain and Suffering ]