"Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us" (GS 22f). Man would have freed himself from the torment of suffering and the progressive decadence of the body, from the fear of death and final destruction had he not sinned, because he "has been created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery" (GS 18b). Pain and death are a dramatic and imposing mark of the fact that man does not exist for himself, he is not self-sufficient, but on the contrary he is weak and vulnerable, poor and needy. This vulnerability however tells us about man’s profound nature, created by God for the relationship with Him, and that cannot exist, nor achieve fullness of its form and its life if not in communion with Him.

The mystery of pain therefore has the same profoundness as that of sin; or rather, of the immensely profound call to a communion with God that informs the whole human being. Consequently, it will never be easy to answer, since it is necessary to achieve this radicalism of the human condition. Jesus Christ offers the answer to this enigma, but in a way that challenges radically the positions usually taken by mankind. In His work of Redemption He has experienced full communion with the Father, loving and unlimited obedience to His will, in the condition of our wounded and vulnerable, passing and mortal nature. Through a merciful divine plan He took upon Himself the consequences of sin, mankind’s physical and moral pain, freely, united with the Father in the same Spirit and united with all men because brothers made of the same flesh and the same blood. Thereby He transformed the pain of His passion into a supreme testimony of His unity with the will of the Father, of His coming from Him and not from Himself; in the greatest place of prayer, the place of the very humble and trusting plea for redemption; in the supreme achievement of His unity, of His very profound solidarity with all men who suffer the burden of pain and death. Presenting therefore His entire being as an offering to the Father, on the altar of the Cross, He was heard and received the answer of redemption, of life, of resurrection, of the glory of the Spirit, which can now be communicated to His believers.

This will always represent the real path for unifying the pain of human existence and life in the spirit and in truth. No man can exhaust the mystery of pain nor provide an adequate answer; on the other hand all are called upon to experience pain united in Christ. Thanks to the gift of His Spirit, the Christian can face suffering with the same feelings as Jesus Christ, acknowledging that he is not his own master, but that he originates, has been created and exists through the work of the Father; bearing witness of the free acceptance of His will, with an obedience born from love; not overcome by the disease or adapting to it, but trusting and hoping against all hope in the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, God of life and glory, and pleading Him therefore with all his heart and all his strength, that He may come with His redemption, overcoming pain and death; and finally offering his own being with all the profoundness hidden within the pain, in anguish or in darkness, and thereby placing himself in His hands, united with the pain and the needs of all mankind for his own redemption and, thanks to immense grace, for the redemption of all brothers according to God’s plan.

In a few words, Jesus Christ experienced pain and death in the Spirit, leading mankind to a new and definitive communion with God. It is only in unity with Him, participating in His Spirit that the Christian can integrate pain in his own spiritual life. As happened to He who achieved Resurrection only through the Passion, we also can transform suffering into an extremely fecund place, at the service of the redeeming plan for redemption, if, united with the Mystery of the Cross of Christ, we accept to complete in our own flesh "what is lacking in Christ’s torment" (Col 1, 24).