In his 1928 Encyclical, Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI exhorted Catholics to consider their obligation to offer reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the many sins of mankind and to practice it fastidiously. By in large his call was ignored then and has long since been forgotten. With the Protestantization that has occurred within the Church in the last half century the notion that a Christian is obligated to offer reparation seems quite foreign, even bordering on blasphemous. Our Proto-Catholic reasons that if Christ’s once for all sacrifice has been accepted, then there is no reason why a Christian would need to perform acts of reparation. Nevertheless, the obligation remains so that now is the time to make this a regular practice for all Christians.
Any discussion of reparation will necessarily need to begin by conquering the already-mentioned objection, namely that Christ already offered all that was needed for sin. The problem with this view is that it contains only a half-truth in that misunderstands what it means to say that Christ has redeemed us. Most simply view Redemption as simply “getting to go to heaven”, but that is way to general. Redemption truthfully means that Christ, through the infinite merits of His Divine Personality, came to repair His work that sin has ruined. In short, Christ came to make reparation. This work could have been done alone, but He instead willed to have accomplices in His work of reparation.
Becoming Accomplices of Christ
Those accomplices are not just His Mother or the Apostles, but every Christian. Every Christian is grafted onto Christ, not as individuals but as members of His Mystical Body, the same Body of which He is the Head. What happens to the Head then likewise happens to the body. If the Head performed acts of reparation, so too then must the body, for They are the Whole Christ. This intimate union of Head and Body means that the members continue His acts of reparation.
This helps us to understand what is often viewed as a confusing statement by St. Paul, namely that he is “adding to what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col 1:24). The lack is not in Christ as Head, but in His Mystical Body. The Body must too be afflicted by participating in the acts of reparation of the Head. Only then can the Head and Body be truly one.
We see then that reparation is obligatory because it creates a unity between Christ and Christians. This obligation extends not just to Reparation itself, but also to the way it is made—by suffering. It is the will of God that Reparation occur through suffering because Christ chose that as the proper means. A true Christian, while he may fear suffering, must see it for what it truly is, Divine currency. Christ’s suffering is the gold standard that gives value to the currency of suffering, but we must nevertheless spend it, or more accurately be spent by it, ourselves. He has raised Christians to such an immense dignity that they become other Christ’s, not by being nice to other people, but by suffering with Him. If we suffer with Him, then we shall reign with Him (2 Tim 2:12). Suffering is the glue that holds the Mystical Body together.
What happens when this obligation is ignored or forgotten? The answer is much unnecessary suffering, or, to put it more accurately, useless suffering. Because suffering is the currency by which the obligation of Reparation is purchased, it is an inevitability. But not just any suffering will do. It is only suffering that is willingly accepted can buy Reparation. This is why living in the unique time that we find ourselves, we must put all of this suffering to good use, namely Reparation.
When Christians fail to offer Reparation then things like the Coronavirus happen. God never will give up on uniting us with His Son so that we can share in His glory. He will even allow things like plagues to grip the world so that Christians might recapture their roles as Reparators. That is why all of us should be focused on making acts of Reparation right now. Everyone is going to be called on to make sacrifices in the coming weeks, but only those who submit to the Provident designs of God will make Reparation. It does not require us to understand the whole plan, only to say “Thy will be done” each time we are called upon to suffer. No one knows how long this will all last, but we can say that it will be shorter when Christians embrace the obligation of Reparation.