"The Fathers of the Church have recognized that Mary's suffering at Calvary played a coredemptive role in the divine scheme of salvation. Protestant Fundamentalists may feel uneasy about the idea of uniting one's suffering to the suffering of Christ and thereby participating in His salvific mission. But this is precisely the idea that is so masterfully developed by Paul in his epistle to the Colossians: "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the Church." (Colossians 1:24). This is a startling passage - and a familiar part of Lutheran-Catholic polemic - because it implies that there is something "lacking in Christ's afflictions" and that Paul can "complete" what is lacking through his suffering. What the Protestant Fundamentalist fails to understand is that while the redemptive sacrifice of Christ was completed on Calvary the work of redemption, the application of this redemptive sacrifice to men and women, will continue throughout history. The suffering of any person, when offered freely to God, is incorporated by Him in the salvific scheme. We can all be co-redeemers in this sense. "We are God's fellow-workers," says Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:9. "
http://mariology.com/sections/NewTest.html
"We can't even imagine what it's like, but we have been granted the
fiery Holy Spirit of love to enable us to do what would otherwise be
humanly impossible in this life, to purge ourselves. That is why Paul
says in Colossians 1:24 something that used to baffle me, Colossians
1:24, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake." [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]? No.
In a sense, he is the opportunist. He is the one who sees the ultimate
rewards. "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I
complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His
body that is the Church."
Now does he mean that Christ died a little too quickly? He needed
a few more hours? No. It means that Christ's suffering and death must
be reproduced and filled up in the Church and if some are slacking
off, that means others must become more like victim-souls, willing to
bear a greater burden, willing to shoulder with love, as Galatians 5
speaks about the love, "Love bears one another's burdens." We do that
just as 1st John 5 speaks about how we can pray for others and get
them back on track after their venial sins have been committed. So
likewise we can suffer on behalf of others. That's what fathers and
mothers do all the time. And God calls us to do that in the
supernatural family, as well, on behalf of our brothers and sisters
and our spiritual children, as well. That's what Paul takes for
granted when he makes such an outlandish statement. Outlandish only
for those who do not recognize the essential need for suffering."
That's what it means to be united in him. That's what the whole
significance of our baptism is. Paul says in Romans 6 that because we
have been baptized, we have died to sin. When James and John brought
their mother to kind of lobby for the right and the left seats in
glory, he said, "Are you willing to be baptized with the baptism with
which I have to be baptized?" So what did He associate baptism with?
An ordeal of suffering. Christ said, "I come to baptize with fire."
I've got to tell you, a lot of people are making salvation out to be
heavenly welfare. No wonder it sells. I could fill a church in a
matter of months, it I was preaching nothing but welfare from heaven
for nothing we do. We don't have to suffer. We don't have to work. We
don't have to obey. We should, but we don't have to. That's wrong, but
it will sell in this century and in every age.
That's why purgatory is so incomprehensible. That's why it seems
so wrong, because it feels so right to have a kind of welfare scheme.
No. God is not some politician buying votes by promising all kinds of
little goodies. I mean not that welfare is not essential in our
society. Let's assume that it is needed. But ultimately God does not
want to make us completely dependent in a sense of being helpless. God
wants to father sons and daughters who will grow up and mature and be
strong in faith, hope and charity, filled with wisdom, filled with
spiritual strength to love others and to sacrifice themselves for
others. This is all of what purgatory implies.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/PURGATRY.TXT
