Logotherapy Works
He was taken from his family in the early morning hours; then he was placed in a cattle car and taken to a prison camp. While in the prison camp he was converted into a mule to carry stones in a cart to the mines. His suffering was intense but his reasoning and faith supported him daily. During this period of pain he developed his gift to mankind in the book entitled:”Logotherapy”. The title is simply translated with this easy phrase to remember in difficult times: Man can endure and “what” as long as he has a “why”. Viktor Frankl came to realize that only love could conquer the evil he was living in and his story ought to be read by all.
“A little while and you will see Me no more and a little while and you will see Me.” The apostles were distressed over this saying which is repeated 7 times in the Gospel of St. John. Packed in this special phrase are three levels of meaning. In the first we all know that the Good Friday experience would remove Jesus from the apostolic band but on Easter Sunday there would be a glorious return of our sovereign King. Now He rules over life and death. This is the first understanding that Christians have concerning this passage. Now let us penetrate a little deeper into its meaning.
Jesus is the perfect expression of all the words that come to us from the prophets and the psalms. He is, in effect, the physical representation of the Jewish experience. What the holy people of the Old Testament endured our blessed Lord would accomplish in his 33 years on this earth. So for a “little while” he was among us in order to teach us how to use our “little while” to come back to the Father. As the Jewish nation would be scattered all over the earth in a death to their former greatness so our Lord would be crucified in order that His life might spread through His Mystical Body to all the citizens of this world.
Now as our Lord passed through an annihilation so must the Catholic Church be crushed and crucified for a “little while”. In the providence of God and after another “little while” the Mystical Body would be resurrected and become more glorious than ever before. Now this pattern even extends itself through time and in each soul that is fully Catholic. The true believer knows that this world because of sin’s presence is doomed to futility. There will come another Jerusalem; there will be a new earth without the death sentence placed on those who endure the sorrows of the present time.
A new heaven and a new earth where the notion of sin is completely abandoned and the effects of the original sin are blotted out by the Blood of the Divine Lamb. What we have to endure to achieve our goal is a suffering or a cross prepared for us by our Dear Father Who preferred us from all eternity and so longs for us to pass the test of the Cross. Why? Because the reward He has prepared for us is so infinite that eye cannot see it; ears cannot hear of it; tongues cannot speak of it and pen cannot describe it. We suffer the poor leadership in the Church because we want to submit our souls to the King of kings. We endure the errors in doctrine because in heaven only truth will remain and enlighten our every action and word.
My dear fellow pilgrims, we are on a journey to the passion and death of the once glorious Catholic Church. That is what will take place in imitation of the death of our guide, Jesus. The “why” is simple: gold is tested in fire and so souls must be tested in the fire of persecution. Keep the goal in mind and you can accept whatever comes from the hands of God. Three important actions must be part of our lives in these days: 1) deeper personal prayer (keep in the presence of God and be joyful); 2) avoid all the occasions of sin that can destroy the purity of your soul and 3) meditate upon the passion and death of Jesus daily in preparation for the moment you will come before Him. Remember it is only a “little while” before all of this comes to pass.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt, S.D.B.
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