‘Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.’
A survey was done in America several years ago to see who the happiest people were and why. The survey found that the happiest people were old African American women. The second happiest people were old Hispanic women. The third happiest group of people were old women in general. Why? Because they had suffered so much throughout their lives. They had grown much through what they had suffered and now they were generally content and very little would put them out.
The mystery of suffering is probably one of the biggest questions that most of us face. Why do we suffer? Why do good people suffer? Why do children suffer with serious sickness? It is one of the most common excuses people use to deny the existence of God. If God is all-powerful and loving, why does He allow suffering? There is no easy answer to this question, but the Lord does give us insights.
It says in the second reading, ‘Although he was Son, Christ learnt to obey through suffering.’ Christ didn’t want to suffer any more than we do and in fact he pleaded with the Father if there was any way that He could be spared the suffering He was about to go through: ‘Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done’ (Matt 26:39). But Jesus trusted that the Father knew what He was doing, and so he accepted his will. It also says that Jesus became perfect through suffering. The suffering we go through plays a part in forming us and Jesus told us it is part of the path to heaven:
If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it’ (Luke 9:22-24).
None of us want to suffer, but it seems to be part of the journey and part of our life on earth. If the Son of God was allowed to go through suffering, can we really expect that we will be spared it?
Part of what makes suffering so difficult, is the fact that we don’t understand it. If we understood that what we are going through has a purpose and good things would come from it, it would make it easier. But part of what makes suffering so difficult is that we cannot see any good in it and so we ask why it is happening and why God allows it?
The greatest answer to the mystery of suffering is the image of Jesus on the cross. The greatest act of injustice and cruelty, turned out to be the greatest demonstration of God’s love and the event that changed the whole of history. That also tells us that suffering offered to God has enormous power. Apart from our love, it is the greatest thing we can offer to God. Think about all the things and people you are praying for. Offer the suffering you go through for those people.
The people of Israel also represent us, God’s people. The history of the people of Israel is also our history as the people of God. The name Israel, means ‘Wrestles/struggles with God.’ It comes from the book of Genesis where a heavenly being, or angel, appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him all night. The angel was not able to overcome Jacob and as dawn approached, he injured Jacob and said, ‘From now on your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you wrestled with God and with people and have overcome’ (Gen 32:28). Just that name alone tells us something. It is a normal part of the human condition that we will struggle with God. We get angry, because we don’t understand, or we see situations that are wrong and we wonder why God allows it. We see people suffering and we wonder why God doesn’t do something. Many of the famous figures in the Bible got really angry with God and argued with him. It is normal that we do and I think it is good to remember that.
If our life on earth is everything, then it is a very cruel life for a great many people, because most people suffer quite a lot in this life and some seem to suffer more than others for no apparent reason. But if our life on earth is only our preparation for what is to come, then it changes everything. If we believe what God has taught us, that we are created to be with him for all eternity, where we will no longer suffer, then we will have greater strength to get through the difficulties we are faced with. Our time on earth is a training ground for us to learn the ways of God and to freely choose to love him and follow in his steps, or not.
If the next life is forever, then the preparation that we make for it in this life is extremely important. God knows this better than we do, so He helps us to learn in the most effective way possible, through suffering. It is not that God makes us suffer, but that suffering is part of this life, and God uses it to help us to learn what is really important. The writer C.S. Lewis says: ‘God’s whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’ When we are in pain we sit up and listen.
In hospitals, people are usually more open to me as a priest, than anywhere else and it is because their suffering has them thinking in a different way. Suddenly they are listening. This pandemic also has people listening in a different way and that is one of the good things that has come out of it. We so easily get distracted with the things of the world and forget about what is important. If the world to come is for eternity, then it is very important that we don’t waste the opportunities the Lord gives us here on earth.
I remember seeing a man who came into a hospital I worked in. His wife kept telling me how important he was and they were quite full of themselves. I think he was a film producer. Within a few days he was different. He had to wait to be treated just like everyone else. All his earthly importance had disappeared, at least temporarily.
The society we live in tells us that we should have everything exactly as we want it and whenever we want it. Everything is for our pleasure. But that’s not what Jesus taught us. He said, ‘Try to enter by the narrow door’ (Lk 13.24). And he said, ‘Anyone who loves his life loses it’. In other words, if you want to follow the ways of God, which lead to heaven, then it will require change, humility and God will teach you how to grow in your spirit, so that when we die, we will be more ready to meet him. But we won’t always be able to have everything as we want it.
It is no wonder that Satan offers us so much pleasure and temptation, because he doesn’t want us to get to heaven. And this world is the only one in which he can destroy us, by trying to make us choose against God. Jesus called him ‘the prince of this world’ because he tempts us through this world. And he says, ‘God doesn’t love you. See how He makes you suffer.’ We are in the middle of this battle and that’s why we need to pray, to arm ourselves with the strength that God gives us and to help us to be aware of what is from God and what isn’t, so that we won’t be deceived.
So I must ask myself, do I want to be part of God’s way of life? Do I want to allow God to transform me? We will suffer anyway, but are we willing to be molded into the ways of God, or do we insist on having everything our own way? The way of this world is always more attractive, but it doesn’t lead to life. The way of God is what leads to our transformation.
‘Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a single grain.’
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