Have you ever seen an image of Christ’s Crucifixion with Saints from different centuries standing around the Cross? That has always confused me a bit, until today. 

I’m praying through the book Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Fr Michael Gaitley and today I read about “retroactive consolation.” This idea, explained by Pope Pius XI in Miserentissimus Redempter, states that we can console Jesus in our agony by our good works and prayers today. What a powerful idea!

We know that Jesus felt the sins of all of the world past, present, and future, in His Agony. If you pray a 54-day novena, during the Mystery of Jesus’s Agony in the Garden you read:

O most sorrowful Mother Mary, mediating on the Mystery of the Agony of Our Lord in the Garden, when, in the grotto of the Garden of Olives, Jesus saw the sins of the world unfolded before Him by Satan, who sought to dissuade Him from the sacrifice He was about to make; when, His soul shrinking from the sight, and His precious blood flowing from every pore at the vision of the torture and death He was to undergo, thy own sufferings, dear Mother, the future sufferings of His Church, and His own sufferings in the Blessed Sacrament, He cried in anguish “Abba! Father! If it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me”; but, immediately resigning Himself to His Father’s will, He prayed, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt!”

It’s not usually spoken of but it makes perfect sense that in this same moment, perhaps by the consoling angel that visited Him, He saw all of the good works and prayers and love that flowed from every saint (big and small S) throughout all of time.  Hence the image at the Cross: all of the love from those Saints consoled Him in that moment.

What does this mean for us? That we can console the Heart of Jesus.  Our good works, our prayers, our acts of love and service, when done with the intention of loving Christ, can lessen His burden in His Passion and Cross.  Isn’t that a moving thought? 

It shouldn’t be too surprising for us Catholics, as at every Mass we are taken to Calvary again.  God is outside of time and so is the Sacrifice of the Mass.  Time is quite human really and realizing its short place in humanity helps to carry our actions past time to a supernatural consequence. That should help us all think twice about how we spend our time. 

I’m always amazed as a Catholic how I can come across an idea in my spiritual reading that can change my outlook on life forever.  

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this concept or perhaps a different concept you’ve come across recently that has changed your perspective on life in a fundamental way.