Those who belong to Christ must live his life in completeness. They must grow to the maturity of Christ... and pass through Gethsemane and Golgotha.
All the sufferings that can come from outside are nothing compared to the dark night of the soul, when the divine light no longer shines and the voice of the Lord can no longer be heard. God is still there, but he remains hidden.
The sufferings and the death of Christ are carried on in the Mystical Body, and in all its members. To suffer and to die is the destiny of everyone. But if a person belongs to the Mystical Body of Christ, through the divinity of the head, his or her suffering and death assume an expiatory and co-redemptive value...
A person bound to Christ will therefore persevere, unaffected by the dark night of subjective distance from, and absence of, God. Perhaps the divine economy of salvation uses these torments to liberate people who are objectively enslaved to sin. So voluntas tua! And even more so in the midst of the darkest of nights.
Edith Stein
La vita come totalità
Città Nuova, Roma 1990, pp. 204-205