I don’t know about you, but I just cringe when in the face of grave human tragedy and suffering I hear someone say “This was God’s will” and/or “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” Really? Because it sure seems that some people get a crushing helping of grief on occasion.
Two generations ago, we Catholics had an answer to suffering. We used to advise one another to ‘offer our suffering up to God, for the good of others, for the souls in purgatory or in amends for our own sinfulness.’ This stock answer, which has slowly faded out of use, strikes many of us as quaint and even somewhat cruel at times. But, perhaps there is some deeper truth to be mined in this traditional response.
The heart of the good news that Jesus came to share with us is not "God loves us, and has a wonderful plan for our lives." Rather, the first and primary claim of the gospel is "God is here." The cross tells us that God’s answer to suffering is not to avoid it, or deny it, or blame it on human waywardness, but rather to be with us in it even when we don’t feel God’s presence. Our faith offers no one an escape from suffering. On the contrary, being a loving, compassionate person in this world practically assures suffering, because we are open and vulnerable. What the gospel does promise is that God will be with us so that we do not have to walk through our suffering alone.
The mystery of God’s life with us is that the very moment of catastrophe is, in truth, the moment of liberation. Jesus redeemed suffering by entering into it with us - loving us right up until the end, even as we put him to death. He gave us a demonstration of the only force with the power to bring about change; that of unconditional, self-giving love and we, as his disciples, are called to follow him in this demonstration to one another, and to the world.
This is not to say that we should seek or endure suffering without a fight. Jesus was always healing people, easing the their isolation, working tirelessly to cure their ills - which tells us that the problem of pain is a matter for action; God works to fight suffering, therefore so should we, using every means at our disposal – prayer, medicine, social action, relief work, and so on. It is right to hate loneliness and poverty. The image of the suffering God we see on the cross is the image of a protesting God.
So, maybe our tradition isn’t so far off the mark after all. To ‘offer it up” is to somehow connect our suffering to the suffering of Christ; to acknowledge that we are all in this together and to be receptive to the unity and purification that can be worked in us through our pain if we do not give in to bitterness. Though never ‘good’, our suffering can have value; it can actually draw us closer to God and one another.
Although we may never find an adequate explanation for human suffering on this side of the grave, we do catch glimpses of the kingdom when we support each other in our suffering. But, in the end, suffering remains a mystery. In his movie “Hannah & Her Sisters” Woody Allen plays an atheist son of a Jewish family who in an argument asks, “If there is a God, why are there Nazis?” His father replies, “How should I know? I don’t even know how the can opener works.” Mysteries abound.
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
Two generations ago, we Catholics had an answer to suffering. We used to advise one another to ‘offer our suffering up to God, for the good of others, for the souls in purgatory or in amends for our own sinfulness.’ This stock answer, which has slowly faded out of use, strikes many of us as quaint and even somewhat cruel at times. But, perhaps there is some deeper truth to be mined in this traditional response.
The heart of the good news that Jesus came to share with us is not "God loves us, and has a wonderful plan for our lives." Rather, the first and primary claim of the gospel is "God is here." The cross tells us that God’s answer to suffering is not to avoid it, or deny it, or blame it on human waywardness, but rather to be with us in it even when we don’t feel God’s presence. Our faith offers no one an escape from suffering. On the contrary, being a loving, compassionate person in this world practically assures suffering, because we are open and vulnerable. What the gospel does promise is that God will be with us so that we do not have to walk through our suffering alone.
The mystery of God’s life with us is that the very moment of catastrophe is, in truth, the moment of liberation. Jesus redeemed suffering by entering into it with us - loving us right up until the end, even as we put him to death. He gave us a demonstration of the only force with the power to bring about change; that of unconditional, self-giving love and we, as his disciples, are called to follow him in this demonstration to one another, and to the world.
This is not to say that we should seek or endure suffering without a fight. Jesus was always healing people, easing the their isolation, working tirelessly to cure their ills - which tells us that the problem of pain is a matter for action; God works to fight suffering, therefore so should we, using every means at our disposal – prayer, medicine, social action, relief work, and so on. It is right to hate loneliness and poverty. The image of the suffering God we see on the cross is the image of a protesting God.
So, maybe our tradition isn’t so far off the mark after all. To ‘offer it up” is to somehow connect our suffering to the suffering of Christ; to acknowledge that we are all in this together and to be receptive to the unity and purification that can be worked in us through our pain if we do not give in to bitterness. Though never ‘good’, our suffering can have value; it can actually draw us closer to God and one another.
Although we may never find an adequate explanation for human suffering on this side of the grave, we do catch glimpses of the kingdom when we support each other in our suffering. But, in the end, suffering remains a mystery. In his movie “Hannah & Her Sisters” Woody Allen plays an atheist son of a Jewish family who in an argument asks, “If there is a God, why are there Nazis?” His father replies, “How should I know? I don’t even know how the can opener works.” Mysteries abound.
Send your "Crazy Catholic Questions" Lisa Brown at dre@ctredeemer.org or read past columns at: http://crazycatholicquestions.blogspot.com.
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