If there is no overt cause, the probability is that our pain has a providential purpose. We endure for the Lord’s sake, exactly as the martyrs did. It may seem as though every day is an encounter with death, but we must learn to pray with that ancient hero of patience: “Even if he kill me, still will I trust him” (Job 13:15). Our pain is meant to propel us toward God, not merely to nurture our sense of grievance or to make us withdraw more into ourselves. As God complained of Israel: “They do not cry to me from their hearts, but they wail upon their beds” (Hos 7:14). Suffering becomes patience only when it is carried beyond itself, when the wall of self-absorption is breached and we are opened more fully to the healing touch of God.
Michael Casey, OSCO
A Guide to Living the Truth, p122.
