From the Pastor's Desk - February 28 & March 1, 2026
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.” Colossians 1:24 NAB
Possibly one of the most challenging and difficult passages of Scripture to understand is the one above. Yet when Paul says that he is “filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ,” he does not mean that Jesus’ suffering on the Cross was insufficient for our salvation. What he does mean, however, is that our human suffering can have a beneficial purpose. We can unite our own sufferings with those of Jesus on the Cross, and he will use them to help lead others in the church to eternal salvation. Our sufferings can be offered up to God, in union with Christ’s sufferings, for the good of others in the Church here on earth, and for members of the Church in Purgatory who are receiving purification in order to be ready to meet God face to face in Heaven.
The story I’m about to share with you is taken from a February 1, 2023 article from Our Sunday Visitor, entitled, “Priest who offered up cancer for clerical abuse victims says he was healed at Lourdes.” Here is a summary of the article:
In 2018, Father John Hollowell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, made a prayer that he would be willing to suffer for the victims of Catholic clerical sexual abuse. A month later, he experienced a seizure, which I believe was the first seizure he had ever experienced in his life. Eventually he was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic with oligodendroglioma, a rare form of a cancerous brain tumor.
Father Hollowell’s first brain surgery was in March 2020, just days before the world shut down for Covid. He developed infections from the surgery and many complicating factors, and he endured two more operations, radiation, and nine months of chemotherapy. Shortly before the March 2020 surgery, he wrote on Twitter that he planned to “embrace this illness willingly” for clerical abuse.
He was on a leave of absence from the two parishes he was pastor of in Indiana, but in July 2021, was well enough to return to his parishes. However, in January 2022, scans showed that the brain tumor was starting to regrow, along with a new tumor on his pituitary gland. He prayed at that time: “If I am able to offer up my life in reparation for the crimes of priests, I would do that willingly.” While he was willing to die if that was God’s will, he also booked a trip to Lourdes for June 2022 thinking, “if I’m healed, that might help draw some of my family members and friends who had fallen away from the practice of the faith back to the Church.”
When he returned from Lourdes, parishioners started telling him he looked a lot healthier. Two weeks after his return, an MRI confirmed that Father Hollowell’s oligodendroglioma was gone. Also, the issues from the growth on his pituitary gland stopped when he returned from Lourdes.
I believe that this true story shows us the power of offering our own sufferings for others in the Church (in this case for victims of clerical sexual abuse, in reparation for the sins of clergy, and for friends and loved ones who have fallen away from the practice of their faith). Lent is the season in the Church’s liturgical year when we focus most intensely on uniting our sufferings with those of Christ on behalf of his body, the Church. Whether it’s a physical illness, an emotional suffering, or some sort of mortification that we place on ourselves in order to share in Christ’s suffering, let’s offer it to God for the sake of members of his body who need prayer, whether here or in Purgatory. This does not mean that we shouldn’t pray for healing, because we know that God often wants to heal us and relieve us from suffering. However, if it’s not his will that we be healed, or if it’s his will that we be healed after a period of suffering, let’s make good use of that suffering for the sake of others in Christ’s Church. As Saint Paul said to the Colossians, let’s even “rejoice” in our sufferings since they can bring good to others in the Church.
Continue to have a blessed Lent,
Father Rich