 The Problem of Suffering
Fr. Jim Altman
Originally posted on 1/31/2010
Once again, a tremendous natural disaster, filled with unspeakable pain and suffering, brings to the forefront of our consciousness the Problem of Suffering. We cannot escape the question: Why? This question will not go away. The immense tragedy in Haiti really is just another in a long line of recent human events, such as Katrina which was close to home, and the Tsunami that devastated so many in the South Pacific? Natural disasters leave us shaking our heads and asking a simple question: “if God is all-powerful and all-loving, how do these things happen?” These things strike at the foundation of our Faith.
Far worse, though, are man-made events that put these numbers to shame. While the estimated deaths in Haiti number 200,000, the suffering caused by the last World Wars is staggering; military and civilian deaths exceeded 100,000,000! Yet these battle losses are more than matched by the number of people intentionally murdered by their own anti-Christian governments during the 20th century (more than 60,000,000 in the USSR, more than 35,000,000 in China, and even 2,000,000 in tiny Cambodia from 1975-1979) Then there are the rampant genocides in Africa, such as Rwanda and Sudan.
And all this says nothing about the unspeakable horror currently existent in our own country, where more than 50,000,000 holy innocents have been killed since Roe v Wade in 1973.
At times when we are tempted to rage against God Almighty for these natural disasters, we would do well to remember that such disasters are miniscule compared to the suffering we inflict upon ourselves. We pretend otherwise, to our peril, when we ignore the words of Moses more than 3,000 years ago:
- Here, then, I have today set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him . . . . (Dt 19:15-20)
So none of us will escape this life without having suffered, and greatly. Each of us will endure the greatest immeasurable loss of love and loved ones. Thus, there is no use pretending otherwise. We still will ask “Why?” and for the sake of our Faith, we still need to have an answer: “If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why suffering?”
Thankfully, Holy Mother Church knows we ask this question. In his encyclical Salvifici Dolores (The Redemptive Value of Suffering) John Paul II expressly addressed our dilemma: “Within each form of suffering endured by man, and at the same time, at the basis of the whole world of suffering, there inevitably arises the question “why” . . . It is a question about the cause, the reason, and equally about the purpose . . . in short . . . a question about it’s meaning.” Salvifici Dolores §9 Thanks be to God, John Paul II also answered the question in his encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason): “The answer is the Cross. Reason cannot eliminate the mystery of love which the Cross represents, while the Cross can give to reason the ultimate answer that it seeks.” Fides et Ratio §23
As I teach my classes from Old Testament to New, Freshmen to Seniors, “Suffering is a good thing. It gives us an opportunity to grow deeper in Faith. Loneliness, loss, fear, pain, illness, death . . . all forms of suffering . . . all are a good thing, if . . . and here’s the big if . . . if we bring it to the Cross of our Lord, Who suffered it all before us when He suffered it for us. As St. Augustine said, “God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.”
Again, suffering gives us an opportunity to grow deeper in Faith. As C. S. Lewis wrote: “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” And deaf we are - remember the staggering human-caused suffering detailed above. The great Charles Dickens recognized God’s megaphone when he wrote “Suffering has been stronger than all other teachings.” Helen Keller summed this up well: “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened . . . .” We need every opportunity we can get to grow deeper in Faith and God, in His Mercy, gives us those opportunities.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel had such an opportunity. After nearly being killed in a terrible car accident, he quoted Archbishop Fulton Sheen: “Bishop Sheen used to say that there is nothing worse than wasted suffering.” In other words, “offer it up.” This especially true if the suffering is particularly unjust. Even our first Vicar of Christ on Earth, St. Peter, wrote as much: “For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.”
Yet not all suffering perfects. Suffering truly is a gift, and as with all gifts, we can accept it or reject it. Thus, suffering “only perfects one type of person . . . the one who accepts the call of God in Jesus Christ.” - Oswald Chambers. Who is Oswald Chambers, and who does he think he is to make such a claim? He was a Protestant minister serving as a war Chaplain in Egypt during WW I, where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops who were later part of the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli. Chambers died November 15, 1917 in Egypt as the result of a ruptured appendix. He suffered the extreme pain of appendicitis for three days before seeking medical attention, refusing to take a hospital bed needed by wounded soldiers. We call that “no greater love hath man . . . .”
Still we ask “why?” We ask why when it seems so unjust, and we especially ask “why” when it happens to us. The answer has been the same since the beginning of Time itself. Peter Kreeft wrote that “The lesson is that all created things must have a reason, and even human suffering - whether we perceive as just or unjust - fits into “the harmony of the universe.” Therefore, we must keep faith in God even when we cannot understand how apparently unjust suffering fits into His divine plan.” We know this to be true by the greatest unjust suffering of all, because it was by and through the suffering of Christ on the Cross that we were redeemed. St. Paul knew this perfectly when he wrote:
- Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. It is he whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. Col 1:24-28
Two thousand years later, Mother Theresa pretty much said the same thing: “Like all gifts, [suffering] depends on how we receive it. And that is why we need a pure heart to see the hand of God, to feel the hand of God, to recognize the gift of God in our suffering. He allows us to share in His suffering to make up for the sins of the world.”
We can lead a horse to water, but we can’t make him drink. You know that and I know that. So I don’t know how many more ways to say it, nor how many more glorious Saints and holy men and women to quote, to inspire someone to drink, without complaint, from the font of suffering and give thanks to God our Father for the opportunity. It is the only way. It is why, on the night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread, gave His Father thanks and praise, broke the bread, gave it to the Apostles and said, “Take this, all of you and eat it. This is My Body which will be given up for you.”
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