Political & Religious Commentary

What if instead of fighting suffering or avoiding pain and dis-ease, we looked at these things as messages and gifts from God.  It seems to me that most of the time we reject the message because we do not see it as gift.  But what if it really is a gift from our Loving Father in heaven?  What if in our agony we cried out to Him and said, “Father please let this cup pass, but not my will but Thine be done.”

God is always looking at the big picture.  He looks at what is best for our eternity.  Sometimes that means that we suffer for a time.  The teaching from the Catholic Church, which Christ Himself gave us for our salvation, instructs us that pain and suffering do have a purpose.  We can offer up suffering for the souls in purgatory.  We can offer pain as the temporal reparation due for our own sins or those of our friends and family.  But it is more than just offering it up.

By entering into the experience we become mystically joined with Christ as he is stripped of His dignity, whipped like a common criminal and mocked with a crown of thorns.  We gain an understanding of just how much He suffered for us as he carries His cross up to Calvary.  We become one with Him as the nails of unknown origin pierce our skin and the sword of His Word penetrates our heart.  Finally, we feel the crushing emotion of abandonment and the powerless surrender of death.

Pain is a message that something is wrong.  But what?  We must be careful not to prematurely judge just what the problem is, or more precisely what is it this message is actually saying.  We need to see suffering as a symptom, not the problem that needs to be solved. 

If we want to know what God is saying through our suffering we need to look beyond the pain and ask the Author of all Life for some clarification.  We need to allow Him into our lives.  Sometimes the only time we seem able to do that, in this busy world of ours, is when we are lying flat on our backs.

God constantly calls out to us.  He wants to be in relationship with us.  He wants that relationship to be so close that he gave us the Sacrament of Matrimony, as a visible symbol of just how close He wants us to be with Him.  He wants us to be one with Him.  Jesus was the model of this and he taught us when He said, “…the Father and I are one.”

Paul asked over and over again for God to remove the thorn from his side, but God refused him this request and said, “My Grace is sufficient for you.”  We can ask God to remove the thorn in our sides, but we must be prepared for the answer to be no. 

In His Divine Wisdom He sometimes chooses disease for some of us.  Could this be the means for our salvation or a witness that brings others to Himself?  In either event He does what He has always done.  He calls us to an intimate relationship with Himself and instructs us as He has always instructed us.

“Be not afraid."

[2] This article is dedicated to and inspired by the life of my dear friend Ada Lopez-Ruiz, who suffers with MS.