Blessings and Suffering

Out in nature it is easy for me to see the Hand of God at work. The miracle of life being represented in a new baby calf. How the cow, without education, understanding, or Le Maz classes, brings the baby into this world and instinctively comes to nurture it and protect it. The beauty of a frosty morning or a splendid sunset. The burst of renewed life in the Spring. So many signs all around us, all the time. Yet any creature unavoidably comes to know sufferring. The baby is hungry, which causes it to cry. The human body ages, which brings pain and dimenished capacity. Suffering is an inevitable part of life. Why does God allow it? The oldest book in the Bible (JOB) is about that question. The answer there seems to be: because. JOB suffers greatly, and complains and argues, but in the end accepts.

The Church says "offer suffering up". It unites us to Christ in a way that can be powerful and effective when combined with prayer. That old saying, that tradition, was largely glossed over in the euphoria of the Charismatic Renewal. But it comes crashing home when we get that chronic pain, or lose our vision, or are betrayed by those we love. St. Paul goes even further and tells us to rejoice over our sufferings. And I can see his point when we are made to suffer for Christ's sake. But do we often see our suffering as being in any way related to the Salvation saga?

Bad things do happen to good people. The answer seems to be: because. My response is that I rejoice over the goodness of God, I ask for something good to come from my sufferings, and I trust that all will be well in the grand scheme of things. Pain still hurts, and that is to be avoided at all costs. Reality is that suffering comes inevitably. It is only our response to it that we can control. Blessed be the Lord!