The clouds are subsiding on a cold pre-spring day. I have been reflecting on the subject of suffering. None of us are immune from the word. In fact, for many, it consumes much of their lives. I have yet to hear a satisfactory rationale as to why there is so much suffering in our world. The trite and pithy explanations fall short of a balm to ease our condition.

Often I have heard that we are members of a fallen world and suffering just goes along with it. Job’s comforters guided him with words that were of little comfort. One of them admonished him to curse God and die. Well, that does not seem like a winning argument. It is a bit easier to look at the sometimes positive results of the trial of suffering.

At times a bit of wisdom comes from suffering. Our minds and hearts become extremely focused on our condition when feeling the hopelessness at the moment of loss whether it be our own physical pain and deprivation as well as the seeking of help from God while we are going through the ordeal. After our trial, we see clear-eyed…for a while the beauty surrounding us. Stopping in place is the result of suffering. We know that we need others…a community to help us. We feel that we really are not on an island of one. Hope is a lovely thing and our penury causes our reflection.

Our Pandemic which has really never ended illustrates that we are indeed ‘all in the same boat on a stormy sea and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.’ Humility comes with pain and loss. It is a terrible lesson and an affront to our dignity and personhood. We see our mortality and the diminishment of who we thought that we were and aids us in laying aside trivial pursuits.

So many on our planet don’t have enough to eat and nowhere to lay their head. Unseen and unheard and seemingly forgotten they look to the upwardly mobile as having perhaps done something right…although that right has somehow eluded them.

Children’s suffering is unconscionable. How can a loving God allow this to occur? I have no answer. How is St. Jude Children’s Hospital full of angels who are devasting cancer. Only when I see the precious healthcare workers bringing hope and comfort to these little ones do I somewhat understand a loving God?

We know it when we see it. The unjust scourge of life and its vagaries on the most innocent. We hope for a better day.

‘Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man! When the chief priests therefore saw him, they cried out, saying. Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.’

‘They have pierced my hands and my feet’ and I can count all my bones.’

Suffering can only be accepted through faith. A faith that we are part of a master plan…

‘And he said unto Jesus. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’