Suffering is, according to the papal encyclical Salvifici Doloris (SD), in itself, an experience of evil. But Christ has made suffering the firmest basis of the definitive good, namely the good of eternal salvation (SD). Suffering is present in the world in order to release love, in order to give birth to works of love towards neighbor, in order to transform the whole of human civilization into a "civilization of love" (SD).
The
Jews could understand suffering
as
punishment for sin. As
the consequence
to disobeying God and eating from the “Tree of Knowledge of
Good and
Evil.” As
Geneses 3:17 say, “Because
you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had
forbidden you to
eat, “Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you
eat its yield all
the days of your life.”
The conscious and free violation of
the law is
at the same time an offence against the Creator, who is the first
Lawgiver.
This sin requires punishment, to uphold the law. From this there also
derives
one of the fundamental truths of religious faith, namely that God is a
just
judge, who rewards good and punishes evil (SD)
In the Old Testament we note an
orientation that
begins to go beyond the concept according to which suffering has a
meaning only
as a punishment for sin, insofar as it emphasizes at the same time the
educational value of suffering as a punishment. Thus in the sufferings
inflicted by God upon the Chosen People there is included an invitation
of his
mercy, which corrects in order to lead to conversion (SD). As said in 2 Maccabees
6:12 "... these
punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people." This punishment is of the
same nature as how
a parent disciplines a child, in that God allows us to undergo
suffering so we
can learn right from wrong. We
can now
start to see why the tree was called the Tree of Knowledge.
But in order to perceive the true
answer to the
"why" of suffering, we must look to the revelation of divine love,
the ultimate source of the meaning of everything that exists (SD). In the Cross of Christ not
only is the
Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering
itself has
been redeemed (SD). In
bringing about
the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human
suffering to the
level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also
become a
sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ (SD).
In the most literal sense,
suffering cannot be
understood outside of the New Testament…in fact, as Pope
John Paul II points
out, the Jews did not even have a word for suffering outside of the
word
evil. The word
suffering, itself, comes
from the Greek verb paskos, and thanks to this verb, suffering is no
longer
directly identifiable with (objective) evil, but expresses a situation
in which
man experiences evil in a passive sense.
Christ in willfully undergoing
suffering caused
by the sins of others redeems mankind on the Cross.
By Christ accepting the consequences of
mankind’s sins, he
personally, pays the price of our sins with his own body. Showing mercy, while
upholding justice.
Forever immortalized are His words,
"Take
this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given up
for
you.” “Take
this, all of you, and drink
from it, this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and
everlasting
covenant. It will
be shed for you and
all so that sins may be forgiven.
Do
this in memory of me.”
All humankind is called to share in
Christ’s
redemptive suffering, for as Paul says in his first letter to the
Corinthians,
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of
Christ?”
As Jesus is quoted saying in
Matthew’s Gospel,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up
his cross, and
follow me.”
Those who share in the sufferings
of Christ are
also called, through their own sufferings, to share in His glory. As
Paul
writes to the Romans: " We are ... fellow heirs with Christ, provided
we
suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I
consider
that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with
the glory
that is to be revealed in us" (SD).
Thus, we learn by willingly
undergoing undesired
suffering caused by the sins of others, we merit crowns of glory we
will
receive in heaven.
Suffering also has a strictly
evangelical
characteristic, which becomes clear by reference to the Cross and the
Resurrection. The Cross was to human eyes Christ's emptying of himself,
at the
same time it was in the eyes of God his being lifted up. On the Cross,
in
weakness, he manifested his power, and in humiliation he manifested all
his
messianic greatness (SD)
But if at the same time in this
weakness there
is accomplished his lifting up, confirmed by the power of the
Resurrection,
then this means that the weaknesses of all human sufferings are capable
of
being infused with the same power of God manifested in Christ's Cross.
To
suffer means to become particularly susceptible, particularly open to
the
working of the salvific powers of God, offered to humanity in Christ.
In him
God has confirmed his desire to act especially through suffering, which
is
man's weakness and emptying of self, and he wishes to make his power
known
precisely in this weakness and emptying of self. (SD)
Over the last two millennia, it has
been through
suffering and martyrdom that the saints have most powerfully spread the
message
of God’s love, for what can be a better testament to the
Glory awaiting the
saints in the next life, as their willingness to give up pleasures in
this life
(and even life itself) in exchange for rewards in the life to come?
The parable of the Good Samaritan
belongs to the
Gospel of suffering. For it indicates what the relationship of each of
us must
be towards our suffering neighbor.
A
Good Samaritan is one who brings help in suffering.
He puts his whole heart into it, and does not spare
his material
means (SD).
This parable, reminds us of
Christ’s words of
the Final Judgment, noted by Matthew in his Gospel: "Come, O blessed of
my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world;
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me
drink, I
was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was in prison and you came to
me." To
the just, who ask when they did all this to him, the Son of Man will
respond:
"Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my
brethren, you did it to me." The opposite sentence will be imposed on
those who have behaved differently: "As you did it not to one of the
least
of these, you did it not to me" (SD).
Christ himself is present in all
suffering
persons, since his salvific suffering has been opened once and for all
to every
human suffering. And all those who suffer have been called once and for
all to
become sharers "in Christ's sufferings," just as all have been called
to "complete" with their own suffering "what is lacking in
Christ's afflictions." At one and the same time Christ has taught man
to
do good by his suffering and to do good to those who suffer. In this
double
aspect he has completely revealed the meaning of suffering (SD).
The ultimate meaning of the
suffering is visibly
present for us each time the priest…acting in the person of
Christ… holds up
Christ’s body, and with it all the sufferings Christ and His
Church, and says,
"Take this, all of you, and eat it: this is my body which will be given
up
for you.” Take
this, all of you, and
drink from it, this is the cub of my blood, the blood of the new and
everlasting covenant. It
will be shed
for you and all so that sins may be forgiven.
Do this in memory of me.”
For, in the Eucharist are all the sufferings of Christ and His Church, which were offered up, once and for all, on the cross at Calvary.