Recently, we watched on television the suffering of thousands in Huston who have lost homes and family possession due to flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Across the world in Mumbai there was similar flooding. We are not strangers to suffering. None of us goes through life without some form of it.
Some suffering we cause ourselves. Others cause us to suffer. And nature itself, in storm, flood, and fire, causes us to suffer. Some suffer from heat and cold, the loss of homes, from injustice, and the violence of others. Some suffer from loneliness, imprisonment, hunger, war, poverty, financial concerns, religious persecution, and sexual discrimination. The process of dying can bring suffering. Yes, there is much suffering in the world.
We know Jesus suffered. He suffered from the betrayal of Judas, and from the denial of Peter whom he called the rock upon which he would build his church. He suffered because of the refusal of the people to believe the message of the Reign of God that he taught and demonstrated by miracles. And, of course, he suffered from his agonizing death on a cross.
Jesus knew his actions would bring him suffering. He understood himself, not just another man, but as the last of the great prophets God sent to the Jewish people. Because of his commitment to bring the Law to completion, and to initiate God’s dream of the Reign of God, he did and taught many things which under Jewish Law deserved death. He knew he would suffer death at the hands of Jewish religious authorities. He predicted his death which indeed happened.
At the same time Jesus taught his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Most who claim to be followers or disciples of Christ will never experience suffering from witnessing to their faith. But every Christian (and all humanity and, yes, the natural world) suffers in some way.
Christians believe that the risen Christ is with them today: “Know that I am with you always until the end of the ages.” They have been baptized into Christ. Christ unites himself with them in the Holy Eucharist. In faith, they know that they have become one body in Christ.
Therefore, their sufferings are also Christ’s sufferings. Christ suffers in and with them! They do not suffer alone. It is not too much to say that Christ in God also suffers when his followers (and all creation) suffers! We believe God does not cause us to suffer, but God allows suffering to happen to us. And God suffers with us.
We can choose to give meaning or purpose to our suffering – which is Christ’s suffering. With Christ, we trust God can transform us, and all creation, through our suffering. Our sufferings can help us grow in perfection and enable us to give God greater glory. God can use our suffering to help bring his saving love into the world.
We can choose our response to suffering. We can embrace it or run from it. For instance, we can fight against an injustice toward ourselves or others, or we can ignore the injustice. We can offer ourselves as gift for the good of others, or protect ourselves from others. We choose.
In the Eucharist and Holy Communion, Christ unites himself with us. We are his disciples. We follow him! We share his mission, his dream, and labor to further it. We share his suffering. We are united as one body in Christ!
The Church offers those who suffer from illness the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. Through it, one who is ill or nearing death unites his or her suffering with Christ’s suffering for the transformation of the world. However, other people who are not ill still suffer in many different ways. Eucharist remains the sacrament to strengthen them. Through Eucharist we are invited to unite our sufferings with Christ sufferings for the saving of the world, and for our own growth in holiness. With Christ we pray, “This is my body given up for you.”
And we identify with St. Paul’s words, “It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church” (Col. 1:24).
Countless people throughout the world and history have given of their lives in love for others. They have suffered willingly for others. How many parents have sacrificed for their children that they might have a better life? How many friends have stood by friends? How many military men and women have suffered for the defense of their country? How many religious people have offered their lives in service of the Church and humanity?
Recently, I was reading about Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), the brilliant scholar and musician who dedicated his life as a doctor in Africa. He was a brilliant theologian who by the age of 30 was recognized for his work in Christian eschatology. He was renowned as the world’s foremost authority on the music of J.S. Bach and as an accomplished organist. He advocated a philosophy of reverence for all life. He earned his medical degree and devoted his life to the sick and suffering in Africa, dying at the age of 90. He was just one example of a person who poured out his life for others.
Catholics recall Bishop Oscar Romero (1912-1980) who defended the rights of the coffee bean pickers and farm laborers in El Salvador during a time when these peasants were persecuted by their government as communists or potential communists. Romero himself was assassinated while celebrating Mass. Nor was he the only one who gave his or her life in that country during those troubled times. During those difficult years in El Salvador more than 75,000 people were murdered or “disappeared.”
We remember Mother Teresa (1910-1997) who sacrificed and suffered for the dying on the streets of Calcutta, India. Today, her Missionaries of Charity, numbering over 4000, work around the world caring for the poor and destitute. She reminded us, “Not all of us can do great things; but we can do small things with great love.”
We are often unaware of the countless suffering that happens throughout the world. We might ask: “Is the suffering of humanity, the suffering of nature’s plants and animals, is all the suffering in the world of no value – simply destruction?” Or can it have meaning?
We are aware of world wars that have taken millions of lives. We are aware today of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma who are being exterminated in a genocide. We remember the genocides of the Jewish people in Germany, Christians in Armenia, others in Cambodia, the Bosnian-Serb genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and so many more. We are aware of victims of war who died, or suffered grievous injury, or were forced into slavery, or into prisons or refugee camps. We are aware of the suffering of nature because of environmental changes and disregard by humans. Is all this suffering just a waste of life? Does God suffer in these people and animals and plants? Or is it just evolution and the survival of the fittest?
When we fight against one another because of religion, race, or sexuality, have we not lost sight of the presence of God within us and within others? When we undermine and deliberately harm one another, have we not forgotten God’s presence in one another?
Is the Risen Christ dwelling in the heart of God, or as we traditionally say, “at the right hand of the Father”? Is the Risen Christ who dwells “in the heart of God” also in some way still present to all life, human and non-human? If so, then Christ suffers wherever there is suffering.
For us Christians, we can give meaning to our suffering by consciously identifying our suffering, however great or small it is, with the Risen Christ, whose sacrificial love still brings salvation and wholeness throughout the world and to all creation. At Eucharist, we not only receive Christ’s love and become one with him, but we commit ourselves to his mission. And we unite our sufferings with his for our own salvation and that of the world.