To Love and Be Loved: The Hidden Value of Suffering

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"Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is yes?"

In Difficult Times
  • We are undoubtedly in difficult times
    • Italy is overwhelmed by number of cases and deaths due to COVID
    • Now, news of this kind are perhaps coming much closer to home
      • We hear the death of several doctors
      • Perhaps we have some relatives or acquaintances who are in the frontlines or have gotten sick or are vulnerable
      • We should also think about the daily wage earners or the homeless
    • I don't have to explain much
      • You can see it all over the social media
    • We ourselves experience some difficulties during this time of quarantine
      • We feel a bit restrained in our activities
  • The question that comes now is:
    • Why is this happening?
    • Where is God in all of this?

"It was not that this man sinned.. 
but that the works of God might be made manifest in him."

Answer from the Gospel
  • We could glimpse an answer from the Gospel from the 4th Sunday of Lent:
    • 'As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." '
    • God allows sickness that the works of God might be made manifest."
    • Sickness, poverty: These are evils that came as a result of original sin
      • The word keyword here is allow; God does not cause them
      • He allows them "That the works of God might be made manifest."
        • i.e. that a greater good may come out of it.
        • They were not in the original plan of God
        • Now they exist in man's life...
        • ...and God allows them.


"I think He wants us to be able to love and be loved. 
He wants us to grow up."

To be loved... and to love
  • Another answer comes from C.S.Lewis
    • C.S. Lewis is the author of Chronicles of Narnia
    • Text below comes from his biopic "Shadowlands" ...when he was giving a lecture about Suffering
    • "Yesterday, I received a letter that referred to an event that took place almost a year ago now, December. My correspondent hadn't forgotten. I doubt if any of us have. That was the night a bus drove into a column of young Royal Marine cadets in Chatham and killed all of them. The letter asks some simple but fundamental questions. Where was God on that December night? Why didn't He stop it? Isn't God supposed to be good? Isn't He supposed to love us? Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is yes? See, I'm not sure that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think He wants us to be able to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. I suggest to you that it is because God loves us... that He makes us the gift of suffering. To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone... to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone... out of which the sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of His chisel, which hurt us so much...are what make us perfect."
  • From a human point of view we know the value of suffering and difficulties
    • Common motto: No pain, no gain
    • We have great appreciation for people who have achieve something despite undergoing great trials
    • We appreciate the growth and development of persons when they encounter difficulties
    • So we understand the value of difficulties.. for achieving human things...
  • But difficulties are also used by God to draw out something greater from us
    • He wants people to be loved
    • He wants people to love
  • We should see suffering as an opportunity for people to be loved
    • We can apply this to the people who are suffering now
    • Through their suffering, they become an object of love of the people around them, they experience God's caress
  • We should see suffering as an opportunity for people to love
    • This applies to the majority of us
      • Isn't this a magnificent opportunity for us to be the instrument of God's love for the others?
        • That is, to seek the good of someone else
        • To go out of our way
        • To be God's reflection, God's image for the others
    • And isn't that a wonderful thing?
      • By doing this, we become more united to Him and love Him more, not just in words, and thoughts but in deeds.

"Many of you have asked the Lord- why lord? And to each of you, to your heart, Christ responds with his heart from the cross." 


A Still Deeper Meaning




  • Can we still dig deeper into the Christian meaning of Suffering?

    • The answer is Yes, especially when we look at the Suffering Christ.
    • These are the words of Pope Francis in the homily of the Mass he celebrated in Leyte after the Typhoon Yolanda:
      • "So many of you have lost everything. I don't know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silence and walk with you all with my silent heart. Many of you have asked the Lord- why lord? And to each of you, to your heart, Christ responds with his heart from the cross. I have no more words for you. Let us look to Christ. He is the Lord. He understands us because he underwent all the trials that we, that you, have experienced."
      • We complain that we are suffering
      • But let us look at Christ
        • Christ who suffers on the Cross for us and our sins
          • There we see the answer
          • And the answer is that Christ's suffering or Passion (a reflection of his love for us) has delivered us from our sins
            • Thus, Christ has given a redemptive meaning to
            • And we can unite ourselves with Christ through our own suffering


    "Amor suffert omnia"

    Love and Suffering
    • There's a famous Latin saying: "Amor vincit omnia"
      •  Love conquers all things.
      • This may very well be true
    • But, we should also consider that "Amor suffert omnia" 
      • cf. St.Paul's hymn of charity:  "Caritas omnia suffert" (1 Cor 13:7)
      • Love bears (or suffers) all things  
    • It is important to have in mind the ideas mentioned above 
      • They may be useful later, for us, and for the people we know
      • We may face more difficulties in the coming days
      • May we face them, and take advantage of them, as opportunities for loving more

    Photo by Luis Galvez on Unsplash


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