“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” (Rom 8:18) “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2:9) Good Friday always comes before Easter Sunday and the glory of the Resurrection. Sometimes, when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted. The mystery of suffering can make or break our faith and can be redemptive. Just gaze upon a crucifix to see suffering and divine love. There’s no escape from suffering in our broken world. Suffering lacks spiritual meaning for those without faith who see constant, painfree pleasure as the ultimate value of life. Pope St. John Paul the Great, with his letter “Salvifici Doloris: On Human Suffering,” and Peter Kreeft are always insightful. No one wants to suffer, but it’s reality, and we need to suffer well.

There is good suffering and bad suffering, but we get to decide which. “Bad suffering” means letting your pain destroy your faith in God, ending in despair, depression or worse. Of course, we have heard that fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering (Master Yoda, philosopher). Instead of the downward path of jealousy, anger, pride, sin, suffering and death, St. Paul advocates the recovery path of suffering, endurance, character, hope and love when he writes, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” (Rom 5:1-9)

“Good suffering” means trusting God and offering our pain to Him as an act of love and as penance for sins. As many saints have said, and the philosopher Sister Immaculata taught me in 6th grade at St. Richard’s in Ohio, just offer it up! Offer it up and unite our suffering with our Lord’s on the Cross. “The Gospel of suffering is always being written … with this strange paradox: the springs of divine power gush forth precisely in the midst of human weakness. Those who share in the sufferings of Christ preserve in their own sufferings a very special particle of the infinite treasure of the world’s redemption and can share this treasure with others.” ("Salvifici Doloris") The choice is ours. Will we use our suffering to grow in holiness or waste it and be crushed?

Recognize that God allows suffering to enter our world. He originally created the human race to live in pure joy without pain and suffering. God doesn’t want us to suffer and doesn’t directly will it, but He respects human free will and allows suffering to bring about good, which usually only He can see. Even Jesus grew in wisdom by experience, “learning obedience through suffering.” (Heb 5:8) But this greater good only comes about if we trust Him and say, “Thy will be done.” It’s tough, but it’s the only way back to peace. If pleasure is your ultimate goal, you’ll only find more pain in the end.

We need faith to make any sense of suffering. Reason alone won’t solve the mystery of suffering, and non-Christians may struggle with the idea of redemptive suffering. In moments of darkness, reason crumbles under the weight of pain. If you’ve lost a spouse or child, then you know that logic doesn’t help much with the awful sense of loss. A reason can’t wipe away tears. It’s faith above all when you’re “living on a prayer,” as Bon Jovi sings. We need faith and family, with prayer and sacraments. Jesus said, “Behold, I am with you always.” He is always there, ready to walk with us through the pain. He carried a cross heavier than all humanity—past, present and future—could bear, so He can handle our crosses. Our Lord died and rose not only for all of us but also for each of us. Jesus was born for this. As we carry our crosses, we are not afraid because God is with us. We were born for this! Offer it up!

“The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the Cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This Cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the allmerciful love of God.” (“Your Cross” by St. Francis de Sales)

In Christ,

Deacon Jeff

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