“Today, during Mass, I saw the Lord Jesus in the midst of His sufferings, as though dying on the cross. He said to me, “My daughter, meditate frequently on the sufferings which I have undergone for your sake, and then nothing of what you suffer for Me will seem great to you. You please Me most when you meditate on My Sorrowful Passion. Join your little sufferings to My Sorrowful Passion, so that they may have infinite value before My Majesty. ” —Sr. Faustina’s Diary 1512
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We live in sphere that is difficult, wearisome, hard and filled with sorrow and disappointment. True there is also ease, rest and communion with others. Yet it often seems that our times of ease are rare as we mature. Suffering of itself is destructive; it can turn us inward to the exclusion of others. Or make us extremely self centered and demanding, bitter and filled with self-pity Yet Jesus took on human form and suffered as we do. If Jesus is truly who he says he is, and the resurrection is ‘real’, then that can change how suffering affects us.
Religion and philosophy grapple with the problem of suffering and come up with different ways of dealing with it…..which can be helpful and life giving. From the Stoics to modern Existential philosophers and other schools of thought both modern and ancient, we are given a course of action in dealing with life. In Buddhism and Hinduism we have ignorance as the source of suffering and karma the balancing that seeks to make things right. All have merit I believe and we can learn from reading their teachers. Wisdom is wisdom no matter where it comes from.
In Christianity there is no set answer about sin and suffering, except for the fact that our own personal actions, done in freedom, that goes against what God desires from us, is one of the main causes for human suffering as well as in nature. Sin flows from our ability to choose and we often choose badly. We can also underestimate the serious nature of sin and joke about it, make light of it.
Yet, when we are sinned against, used, abused, cheated, gossiped about, loved ones killed or raped, we get a small glimmer of the reality of sin and the harm it does to those who commit sin as well as their victims. It eats away at our humanity. We are sinned against, which enslaves us and keeps us from experiencing true life. We harden our hearts to protect us from pain that can be caused by others, often maliciously. Even when done in ignorance, the harm done is the same. Most give back what they receive, heaping sin upon sin. It is a Gordian knot that seems to tighten with each generation. What we do, is passed on for other generations to deal with. I believe mankind is weary to the point of death, yet it cannot stop its self inflicted suffering caused by the misuse of freedom. As a species we continue to do the same actions over and over again, causing a widening circle of suffering and death. Perhaps we are insane. Is evil so removed from reality that it is truly incapable of change?
Jesus told us about the Father. He used a parable, “The Prodigal Son” to bring out the suffering the father went through because of his love. Love and suffering are co-joined in this world; you cannot have one without the other. Love is stronger than death and I believe Jesus shows us that. The Christian and Jewish concept “God with us” can be hard to understand. If love is the true nature of God, what does that imply? Christ on the cross, was God on the cross, become flesh, to take upon himself all of our hatred, sin, suffering, fear, and yes our own deaths which are often filled with fear and suffering. He took it all, yet unlike mankind, he did not sin, he loved his enemies (us), and in that act of forgiveness he fulfilled the law of love. He overcame the curse of death, for he arose and lives in a way that we can as yet not comprehend, but to dwell on this reality can transform how we look at suffering.
For being in the Body-of-Christ, our sufferings are one with his, and we participate in the salvation of the world. We do carry one another’s burdens. When we pray Christ Jesus prays in us. When we suffer, it is Christ Jesus who suffers with us. As we move deeper in our intimacy with God, we understand this mystery at a deeper level, but then we lose it and continue in our mystery walk with Christ. For the essence of mystery is not that it is unknowable, but that it is infinitely knowable.
Ever higher up and deeper in as the Narnia saying goes. It is grace that pursues us and draws us in ever deeper. However, I am so very clumsy in my understanding and it is hard to be balanced when dealing with it. I love life, it is a great privilege to be here where we can make choices and grow…..I also live in hope that is also growing as I slowly cultivate my understanding of the greatest of mysteries, God’s love for us.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
