The Meaning of Suffering - 1
For sure, when reading the words of Christ
on calling us to take up our cross, the first thought that comes to mind is
enduring persecution. This persecution can take on many forms – as seemingly
trivial as being teased about being a Christian to as grievous as becoming a
martyr.
But, taking up one’s cross, i.e. embracing
suffering, is not just about accepting persecution. To understand exactly what
is meant here, we must go back to the beginning of understanding what is meant
by suffering.
To suffer means to undergo pain and
hardship. This brief definition is adequate for explaining the experience or
situation of one who suffers. Yet, it lacks an explanation of the essence of
suffering and what it means to suffer.
What Pope St. John Paul the Great Says
Pope St. John Paul the Great writes about
the meaning of suffering in his apostolic letter, Salvifici Doloris (SD) or
Redemptive Suffering, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering. He teaches
that suffering cannot be separated from understanding evil as when we suffer we
experience a kind of evil. Indeed, we suffer because of evil. And, regardless
of the evil, it can trace its way back to Original Sin. So, because suffering
is so linked to evil, we must seek to understand the essence of evil. Says St.
John Paul II:
Man suffers on account of evil, which is a
certain lack, limitation or distortion of good. We could say that man suffers
because of a good in which he does not share, from which in a certain sense he
is cut off, or of which he has deprived himself. He particularly suffers when
he ought”—in the normal order of things—to have a share in this good and does
not have it. (SD, #7)
He goes on to teach that suffering can come
in many forms, but it can be understood under three categories: physical
suffering (pain of the body), moral suffering (pain of the soul), and finally
definitive suffering, or eternal damnation (SD, #5, #14). It is the pain of the
soul, our moral suffering, from which we ultimately find salvation from in the
Cross of Christ. And, sometimes, that moral suffering also manifests itself in
physical suffering.
Suffering & Our Salvation
“For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might
have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
And in this we find the very meaning of
suffering: our redemption. The only way for us to be saved from the ultimate
suffering – that of separation from God – was through the suffering of His Son,
Jesus Christ. To be saved from the stain of the first sin – disobedience to the
Will of God – we must be saved by the complete emptying of One who is perfectly
obedient to the Father. As St. John Paul says,
In his suffering, sins are cancelled out
precisely because he alone as the only-begotten Son could take them upon
himself, accept them with that love for the Father which overcomes the evil of
every sin; in a certain sense he annihilates this evil in the spiritual space
of the relationship between God and humanity, and fills this space with good.
(SD, #17)
Even in understanding the essence and
meaning of suffering, we can’t learn to approach it without also understanding
its purpose.
Why Do We Suffer?
As with many Truths, ultimately we must
come to the conclusion that any explanation of why something must be is a
mystery because of the limits of our human understanding. Yet, St. John Paul
the Great attempts to explain the “why” of suffering:
[In] order to perceive the true answer to
the “why” of suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love, the
ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists. Love is also the
richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we
are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations. (SD,
#13)
Essentially, the “why we must suffer”
circles back to our role in our redemption and taking part in the suffering of
Christ. The infinite and divine love of both the Father and the Son is a
salvific love, says St. John Paul. Further, because “man exists on earth with
the hope of eternal life and holiness” (SD, #15), our suffering is given a new
meaning by this salvific love.
Original Sin
So, why do we suffer? We suffer because of
Original Sin. Yet, our suffering is not just in response to Original Sin, but
rather takes on the new meaning of redemption through Christ’s suffering. And,
God “allows” suffering not because He is vindictive or relishes wreaking pain
on His creation, but rather because suffering is so linked to our free will
and, in turn, linked to divine love.
While we might ask God out of protest why
we must suffer, the answer He gives is not ever what we expect, but rather one
that wishes to call us to partake in the suffering of Christ. As St. John Paul
says,
[In] general it can be said that almost
always the individual enters suffering with a typically human protest and with
the question “why“. He asks the meaning of his suffering and seeks an answer to
this question on the human level…Nevertheless, it often takes time, even a long
time, for this answer to begin to be interiorly perceived. For Christ does not
answer directly and he does not answer in the abstract this human questioning
about the meaning of suffering. Man hears Christ’s saving answer as he himself
gradually becomes a sharer in the sufferings of Christ. (SD, #26)
The Purpose of Suffering
In his Letter to the Friends of the Cross,
St. Louis de Montfort tells us that the purpose of suffering is to prepare us
for the glory of Heaven. He likens the suffering of the cross to the chisel and
hammer that shapes and cuts stones into “beautiful works of art”:
[Y]ou must expect to be shaped, cut and chiselled
under the hammer of the cross; otherwise, you would remain rough stones, good
for nothing but to be cast aside…respect the chisel that is carving you and the
hand that is shaping you. It may be that this skillful and loving craftsman wants you to have
an important place in his eternal edifice…(#28)
Suffering is how we continue down the path
of conversion, grow in faith, and, as St. John Paul the Great said, rebuild and
strengthen the goodness that we lost through Original Sin (SD, 12). Suffering,
therefore, is how we achieve salvation because it enables us to participate in
the Passion of Christ. As St. Paul states in his Letter to the Philippians, the
only way to obtain salvation is to take part in Christ’s Passion (Phil 3:8-11).
Suffering is a way to be sanctified (2 Cor 12:7-10, 1:9-11).
Suffering constantly points us to God. It
is the very real reminder that we are weak and imperfect humans needing
salvation. Suffering can and often does lead us to God.
In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis says:
We can even ignore pleasure. But pain
insists on being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in
our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf
world.
Embrace Your Cross
Suffering reminds us we cannot go it alone
nor do we need to go it alone. When God gave us His only Son, He gave us a way
to achieve salvific suffering. He gave us the Church, which is Him still
remaining with us in our suffering on earth. Through the Sacraments, He gives
us the grace and strength to continue on in our suffering and use it to rebuild
the good we lost due to Original Sin – to achieve eternal life.
To be clear, suffering in and of itself
doesn’t procure salvation but rather the embracing of one’s cross leads to our
redemption. This is because Christ already suffered for our salvation, and so
made our suffering redemptive in nature. Yet, we can take part in that
salvation by embracing our own cross as He embraces His. This is our role in
redemption.
No comments:
Post a Comment