By Sr. Marie Amata, C.K.
School Sisters of Christ the King
Much has been written on the topic of suffering. Sometimes we receive great inspiration from what we learn about it, and other times what we hear evades that very place in us that is most hurting.
Suffering is mysterious. It may be one of the greatest mysteries of the human experience. Suffering is misunderstood. While many people of Christian faith know intellectually of its great value, so many others throughout the world and throughout history do not. Human suffering is unique. As the only creatures who possess the value of being made in God’s image and likeness, we experience suffering in a different way altogether as compared to any other created being. Perhaps this tells us that something of suffering is sacred.
As a human race and as individuals, we have been redeemed by Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. At the same time, when we look deep within ourselves, we find that there are places in us that live according to the “new man” – where God’s life and love are found – and there are places that still await redemption.
Jesus works continually to redeem us wholly, and He does His work through both the small, seemingly mundane occurrences of our daily life as well as through significant life events. When we give God our consent to the suffering He allows in our lives, He uses it, mysteriously redeeming every nook and cranny in us that is still in need of His healing touch. We need not wait until Purgatory to be cleansed from that which is keeping us from heaven. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) Suffering, in a fallen world, is necessary.
How can we understand suffering more deeply so that we can accept it and allow God to use it to purify us and bring us to deeper union with Him? Let us start by understanding more about the human person. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the three faculties of the human person are the intellect, the will and the passions. Every human being since the fall of Adam has experienced discord within himself, and that discord occurs both across and within these three faculties.
A mother can feel both intense joy at her son’s wedding and at the same time the ache of his absence from the home she created for him. A person can know that God is Goodness itself and yet struggle to believe it when bad things happen to those whom he loves. This explains why we can feel the intense pain of suffering amidst a peace that anchors us firmly, convicting us that we are exactly where our Loving Father wants us to be. With our will we can show our hurting heart to Jesus; with this same will, we can fix our attention on the peace that abides within, the sign of His redeeming presence. Jesus will use both to purify us.
How do we make it through the long and intense periods of suffering in our lives and still experience happiness? First, we need to know what to accept and what to reject. In other words, what is the necessary suffering of the cross and what is the unnecessary pain that comes from desolation? The former is the gift that Jesus has for us; the latter is the poison the enemy tacks onto the gift to influence us to reject it. We accept the crosses of sickness or age, how they limit what we can do with our body as compared to what we could once do. We reject the desolation that we are of little use to others, that we are a burden or that we have less value than the healthy and young. We accept the cross of our loved ones being far from Jesus. We reject the desolation of helplessness and anxiety over their situation, instead lifting them to the Father with a tranquility of heart that comes from experiential knowledge of a God whose children are infinitely precious to Him.
Even after we have distinguished between the cross and desolation, suffering is still painful. Here again we fall back on our understanding of the human person. Each of us, made by a God who is Love, finds our fulfillment in receiving and making a return of love with our very being. God can do nothing but love. This means that the gift of His cross is a gift of love.
When we engage our will and with firm resolve accept the cross He has given us, we make a return of our love to Him. Love is intensely motivating. Something indescribable happens to the human heart when we accept suffering as an intentional act of love offered to Jesus. It takes our eyes off the pain and places them squarely on the One we love as we are loving Him. Perhaps this is how the saints could call the cross “sweet.”
Here the mystery of suffering reechoes.
