The Christian meaning of life/Reparative suffering

Even those who are unable to pursue the Christian meaning of life highlighted in Matthew 25, for example due to a disabling disease, have their own Christian meaning, that is, that of contributing to completing in their flesh what is missing from Christ's sufferings in favor of his body which is the Church as we read in Colossians 1.24

Colossians 1:24

 24 Therefore I am happy in the sufferings that I endure for you and I complete in my flesh what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, for the sake of his body which is the Church.

With this verse from the letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul highlights the Church as the body of Christ and that there is a type of human suffering that has the function of completing the redemptive suffering of Christ on behalf of the Church.

Apostolic Letter SALVIFICI DOLORIS by John Paul II

In the apostolic letter "Salvifici Doloris" it is explained how the completion of Christ's sufferings in favor of his body which is the Church by those who have this type of suffering:

 In this way, with such openness to all human suffering, Christ brought about the redemption of the world with his own suffering. In fact, at the same time, this redemption, even if accomplished in all its fullness with the suffering of Christ, lives and develops in his way in the history of man. It lives and develops as the body of Christ, which is the Church, and in this dimension every human suffering, by virtue of union in love with Christ, completes the suffering of Christ. It completes it just as the Church completes the redemptive work of Christ. The mystery of the Church - of that body which in itself also completes the crucified and resurrected body of Christ - simultaneously indicates that space in which human sufferings complete the sufferings of Christ. Only in this radius and in this dimension of the Church-body of Christ, which continually develops in space and time, can one think and speak of "what is missing" from Christ's sufferings. The Apostle, moreover, clearly highlights this when he writes of the completion of "what is missing from the sufferings of Christ, in favor of his body which is the Church".

Be my light page 388

As we read in the book "Be my light" about Mother Teresa, this type of redemptive or reparative suffering can also exist in servants of God without necessarily any disabling disease, but with a tribulation that would be like that indicated by Saint Paul in Colossians 1 ,24:

 Reading the works of Saint John of the Cross leads us to consider the night of the soul mainly as a passive personal purification, which prepares the soul for perfect union with God...Such purification... appears necessary to remove the defects of the proficient (those who are on the path to perfection) of which the author speaks in the Dark Night Book II chapter 10. The lives of some great servants of God dedicated in a particular way to reparation, to immolation for the salvation of souls or to the apostolate through interior suffering, however, suggest a prolongation of the night of the soul even after their entry into union transforming. In such cases, such a tribulation would no longer be primarily purifying but would be reparative.

Benedetta Bianchi Porro

A clear example of this meaning of life linked to redemptive and reparative suffering is the Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro, deaf, blind and capable in recent years of moving only a few fingers of her right hand with which she communicated with the world. These are some thoughts contained in her apistolario:

 "We are the land that hopes under the snow - because all things are where they must be and go where they must go, in the place assigned by a Wisdom that is not ours"

 "I always offer my pains to the Lord, but I don't ask him to use them for some purpose. He knows better than me what purpose they can serve him"

 "Heroism is not rebelling. Accept everything with courage. And everything by magic, it will become fatally simple and full of heavenly peace."