Read
the book of JAMES:
Many of us have experienced tragic events in which the only
response possible is tears followed by the anguished question "Why?"
The slaughter of the Jews, the annihilation of Hiroshima, the massacres in
Africa, the genocides in Eastern Europe, the plundering of Third World
economies by first world economies which plunge subjugated people into
starvation and poverty, -- why do such horrible things happen? God stands
accused! If I were God, we think, I would never allow such suffering! On the
face of things, we relegate ourselves to two alternatives in order to explain
suffering -- either the universe is governed by a cruel, vengeful God who
delights in torturing the innocent; or there is no God and we drift through
time in total absurdity.
But there is another possible explanation. Our image of God,
generated from our own limited human experience often prevents us from
understanding things as they truly are. To make us human and distinct from
other levels of creation, our creator gave us the ability to make choices. If we are to exercise
this inherent ability of free choice, it follows that we unfortunately are able
to abuse it. If God were to intervene in our decisions, wrong actions would not
be impossible, thus our ability to make choices would be meaningless, and we
would be no more than robots. The price of our freedom is pain, suffering and
mistakes. This is the price that must be paid for the freedom of choice we have
been given.
Our choices are highlighted in Matthew 25
It is we who first turn our world awry, and then we reap the harvest
-- either ourselves or our children or our children's children. Throughout the
ages, human beings have destroyed their harmony and at-one-ness with the world
and introduced discordance everywhere. We humans, not God, have produced the
instruments of torture and destruction and have devised ever more effective
means of enslaving or terrorizing other human beings. It is our greed or
stupidity or blindness that has caused the inequalities and the injustices in
our societies. And God, who foresaw all the inhumanities that we would
perpetrate on others and on our world, stepped into our ranks through the Word
made flesh to show us the way to love and become reconciled.
Proverbs 3vs 5:6
When we are confronted with suffering in our own personal lives,
even our most profoundly held beliefs easily break down . Our natural human
impulse is to fly from trouble, and when we realize there is no escape, we are
tempted to despair. When the suffering is our own, it shrouds our whole being,
undermining the little courage we have. We become deaf to all but the din of
our own misery. Every human being must travel this road at some time and
experience this temptation to despair.
Read the last chapter of the book of Habakkuk:
The Temptation To Despair
Has Different Faces
Some people drift from despair to self-pity ...
"Why should this happen to me? ... Haven't I always tried to lead a good
life?" Self-pity may be a normal reaction, but the time for it passes. If
we allow it to take hold, it can destroy us as surely as a cancerous growth.
Self-pity erodes our courage and our humanity. It is destructive not only of
ourselves but of those who love us and who would support us. If we see
ourselves as the victims of a vicious fate, we become embittered and the love
that is in us will be soured into envy and hate.
Some people refuse to face reality...
The refusal to face reality is almost as destructive as self-pity.
If I shut my eyes hard enough and long enough, I can convince myself that this
dreadful thing has not really happened. It will go away. I may even deaden my
response with tranquillizers. In refusing to face reality, I abdicate my
responsibility and say "no" to the possibility of growth.
Some people bargain with God and demand a miracle ...
Another response is to pray frantically that God will get us out of this mess.
We even feel a barely suppressed sense of outrage that, since God has got us
into it in the first place, God will get us out. So we expect a miracle and
when the miracle fails to happen, we feel that God has failed to take care of
us: "God, you let us down. Get us away from this nasty reality. Hide
us." It doesn't occur to us that we are just using God as another form of
denial.
How can we sneer at these responses? Who knows how we will respond
when the hour strikes? Surely God is our refuge, and it is our right to ask for
the agony to pass. Even Jesus did that! Did Jesus not pray that his cup might
pass? -- Yes, he did, but in redeeming humility, he added, "Abba, if it be
possible ... not my will but yours" (Lk 22:42). Our tragedy is not that
we suffer, but that we waste suffering. Self-pity, turned inward, warps us
and drives out love. In refusing to face our situation as it is, we run from
the truth -- and from ourselves. If we are in flight from ourselves, we have
nothing whatever to give to others except our own barrenness. We can only gain
from suffering if we use the opportunity to grow in compassion and
understanding, to become more sensitive to the needs of others. "Help
carry one another's burdens; in that way you will fulfill the law of
Christ" (Gal 6:2). Through suffering, God is offering us a share in the
life that God chose for God's Word who became human.
It is easy for us to forget that the core of our faith is a human
being, dying in mess and muddle and pain, crying out in despair, "My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mk 15:34). This represents our true
human condition. Jesus was sharing with us the sense of having lost God. Yet
his cry of despair did not diminish his love. If one can reach the point of
crying, "My God, my God," without ceasing to love, one can find
contentment in the midst of one's abandonment. Even though we may not be
called to imitate Jesus' life in detail he does
give us a way and the means to follow him in our own existential situation. At
the center of all that God is offering us, the cross stands as a commentary --the place where the visible meets the invisible,
the historical sign that Jesus fully shared our human situation.
Faith in Christ Jesus is not an immunizing drug against pain; it
may not even seem to be comfort of any kind. But it is a key to unlock the
meaning and the latent possibilities in what we must endure. Suffering can be
ennobling and creative, but it may be nonsense if we do not see meaning or put
meaning into it.
What do we mean by suffering? It is something, on a trivial
or cosmic scale, which is highly unpleasant to us, which hurts, which upsets
our plans, and which is against our will. That is the crux of the
matter. As we confront each new situation of suffering, we engage in a
struggle. We fear being overcome. We are no longer sure of ourselves. The
bubble of our complacency is shattered. We become vulnerable and in our
vulnerability we can find God. Although our happiness ultimately lies in God,
we usually will not seek this unless we are compelled to face our radical
insufficiency. C.S. Lewis wrote that pain is God's megaphone to arouse us from
our deafness. It is only when we are afraid or bewildered, aware of our own helplessness
that we turn to God. If we are to be re-made, re-born, turned around, we must
recognize, accept and confront our broken pieces:
Your pain
is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the
stone of the fruit must break so that its heart may stand in the sun, so must
you know pain. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals
your sick self. Therefore trust the physician ... the cup the physician brings,
though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay, moistened by the
Potter's own sacred tears. (Kahlil
Gibran, The Prophet)
That
there is some therapeutic value in suffering is obvious. When our own need is
great, to whom do we turn? To the person for whom life has always been easy, or
to the one who has been buffeted by more than one storm? Somehow we acknowledge
that the former lacks a dimension and cannot help us. However, remember that
suffering does not automatically provide that deeper dimension. Like pleasure,
suffering is morally neutral. What gives or does not give it value is the way
it is received. It is not good in and of itself. The mere fact of suffering
does not make one a martyr. Suffering can sour and embitter. It can make people
less human. It can even turn them into monsters. However, where it is
accepted and used, it can bestow a maturity and a beauty of spirit that no
other experience can provide. We have all seen shallow men and women grow
better through adversity -- it is their one big chance to do so.
Each one of us has places in our hearts which do not yet exist,
and into them enters suffering in order that they may have existence. There is
a wisdom that only sorrow can bring. It is the source of great poetry, music,
art and the great discoveries of life. It is in sorrow that we can look into
ourselves and find God.
