Fr. Roy Cimagala
THIS is how we should feel when some suffering comes our way. This is especially so when we think that we do not seem to deserve suffering because we have been trying our best to be good and holy, or because we are not aware of committing any big mistake that brings with it its own comeuppance, etc. Just the same, we also know that we somehow deserve to suffer because of some personal fault, no matter how light.
That can only mean that God has given us the favor to make us share more intimately in the redeeming suffering and death of Christ for the good of all or for the sake of some people or some particular intentions. Our reaction to suffering should be that of patience, peace and confidence, and thanksgiving and praise.
This was how the saints and other holy men and women felt when some form of suffering came their way, including martyrdom. They embraced it lovingly because they knew that the cross, in whatever form it came, was the surest way to be with Christ in his supreme act of loving and saving us.
Obviously, that kind of attitude can only be assumed if a person clearly has the grace of God. Only God's grace can make a person see the cross that way. Without it, the cross can only mean pain, problem, suffering that is repulsive to our nature.
It is also for this reason then that whenever a suffering comes our way, we have to ask for grace to be able to regard that suffering the way Christ and the saints considered their suffering. That grace will always be given by God who is not sparing at all in showering us with it.
We need to be clear about this truth of our faith so that we can take proper advantage of the suffering that we unavoidably will have in our earthly life. Our reaction to suffering should be eminently theological, spiritual and supernatural. It should never be seen only from a purely human point of view, based on feelings and our human estimations alone.
We have to learn how to suffer. It’s an art and skill that is available if we only care to notice. It’s all there as clear as noonday, its cause and meaning precisely defined, its antidote and vaccine abundantly provided. Our Christian faith sheds tremendous light on this mystery of our life. Christ is showing us the way.
Our faith, the ultimate source of truth about ourselves, tells us that suffering is due to sin, to the misuse of our freedom, to our disobedience to the will of God who created us to be his image and likeness, to be children of his, sharing in his very own life.
Yet, in spite of that, God our Father, who is all goodness and the very fount of love, did not and does not cease to care for us. And while allowing us to suffer the consequences of our sin and disobedience, he also showed and continues to show us up to now how to tackle suffering in our earthly life.
We should try our best, with God’s grace which he actually gives us in abundance, to go beyond the level of the sensible and the intelligible, and enter into the all-beautiful world of our faith where the humanly ugly things are converted into divinely beautiful realities.
Let’s not be afraid of suffering then. We just have to learn to suffer the way Christ himself suffered. Not only has he given us the way to do it, but also the very power to suffer with him.
With faith, we can even resemble Christ’s eagerness to meet his death because we all know that such death can only mean one thing—our redemption, our purification, and our way toward our ultimate glorification as children of God.
If we manage to understand and appreciate suffering in this way, then we can always see beauty in suffering. Even our physical deformities and deficiencies, even our moral errors and blunders can convey a distinctive brand of beauty if borne with faith in Christ.
Let’s remember that the beatitudes are formulated along the ways of suffering. We are blessed if we are poor in spirit, if we are in mourning, if we are meek and humble, pure of heart, if we are merciful, and hunger and thirst for righteousness, if we are peacemakers, if we are persecuted and insulted, etc. (cfr Mt 5)
We have to learn to regard all suffering as privilege given to us by God.
E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com
