June 17, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Philosophers, theologians, and different religions have throughout history grappled with the mystery of suffering.
Why do humans suffer? If there is a God, why does He allow innocent people to suffer? Why God would allow suffering that seems so unjust and unfair? How could God want people facing terrible illnesses to remain alive and continue to bear painful suffering?
Advocates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide exploit modern fears of suffering to argue that the most compassionate response is death for the sufferer. Opponents of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide often (correctly) point out that a better solution is to alleviate the suffering through palliative care rather than eliminate the one suffering.
In a new essay, The Splendour of Suffering, Catholic Deacon and psychotherapist Dr. Robert McDonald outlines six “building blocks” that can help people to understand the mystery of suffering, which he argues is an unavoidable part of life and can ultimately be a blessing.
Suffering takes many different forms, McDonald wrote, and no person, no matter how wealthy or successful, can avoid some sort of suffering in life.
McDonald’s “building blocks” to understanding suffering can provide those in emotional, physical, or other forms of pain with comfort and the strength to accept or even embrace their suffering. They also are a strong rebuttal to the euthanasia lobby’s constant portrayal of suffering as meaningless.
McDonald’s approach to suffering also illustrates the profound difference between Christian and non-Christian worldviews. The former sees the positive that can emerge from suffering and the latter often views suffering as meaningless.
There is a modern mentality that teaches, “We must avoid pain at all cost, we must never become sick, we must never accept any kind of inconvenience in our comfortable lives and it is sheer madness to ever think of sacrificing ourselves for the good of another,” McDonald wrote.
This mentality is strikingly apparent in the arguments of the euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide lobby, whose arbitrary and constantly-changing definitions of “unbearable suffering” are rooted in the idea that life isn’t worth living if there’s pain or suffering in it.
Suffering wasn’t God’s intention, McDonald wrote, and the fact that it exists in our world is a result of the sin the first man and woman freely chose to commit, which unleashed misery and distress upon humanity.
Yet Christians believe that Our Lord suffered when he was here on earth, McDonald wrote. This can be an enormous source of comfort for the faithful; souls are not alone in their suffering because it can unite them with Jesus, who suffered so much on Earth.
Another positive element of suffering is its service to other people, McDonald wrote.
“So often our pain seems useless and pointless, yet it never is,” McDonald wrote. “It has a redemptive action, which is to say that our suffering…is honoured by God in the conversion of sinners who are otherwise bound for Hell.”
McDonald continued:
As a result of that connectedness of every human person to all other human persons, the sins of the world will afflict me, even though I may be innocent. Therefore a good woman may be violated by a drunken husband, an innocent unborn may be ripped from his mother's womb, a beautiful child may die of cancer, a man may commit a murder in a remote part of the world and by all of these, I am somehow weakened. In a word, our suffering does not come from God. It comes from the unbearable load of sin in the world and the innocent are often caught up in its evil net. The Mystical Body of Christ still has to take up its cross, follow Jesus along the Via Dolorosa to its own Calvary, and beyond that to the joy of resurrection.
Yet God is a merciful God. The suffering of the innocent, while it is in and of itself an evil thing, is transformed by God into a powerful act of his on-going redemptive work in the lives of men and women. Evil is evil and human beings cannot bring good out of it, yet God can.
“Nothing is impossible to God’ (Luke 1:37). God is able to somehow bring good fruit out of what appears to be dark and crushing. He allows Satan to do his evil and that is the mystery of evil which we can not fathom, but he turns Satan's evil work against him. When the innocent suffer, God responds by saving souls, while Satan, who at first rejoices in this suffering of the innocent, ends up gnashing his teeth in frustration. When all is said and done, his worst efforts only give glory to God.
‘Gold is purified in a crucible’
“God…allows our suffering to refine us and to test us,” McDonald wrote of the fourth “building block” on which suffering can understood, obedience. “Just as gold is purified in a crucible so we become purified by pain and our faith is put to the test. The evil of our suffering is graciously turned around by a good God to our spiritual benefit.”
The story St. Rita of Cascia is a great example of this, McDonald wrote. St. Rita’s husband was a violent, cruel man, yet St. Rita bore it all for the love of Jesus and prayed for her husband’s soul. He experienced a profound conversion to Catholicism and became a devoted husband.
McDonald’s fifth “building block” is that suffering can reduce the amount of time a soul spends in Purgatory, a state Catholics believe some souls enter to be purified before going to heaven.
“It is a well-known fact in Catholic theology, that it is far better to suffer here on earth, even for a long time, than to spend one day in Purgatory,” continued McDonald. “Our earthly suffering, then, is by far preferable to any experience of Purgatory. This may be difficult for us here on earth to understand but the holy souls in Purgatory surely do understand it.”
This points to another difference in the worldviews of Christians and non-Christians. If death just means nothingness, or if everyone automatically goes to heaven and there is no hell, then it makes sense that one would prefer death to prolonged suffering. But if the Christian worldview is correct, then suffering can help a person’s eternal destination and ultimately bring him or her face-to-face to the beatific vision.
“The sixth and last building block is that suffering is a kind of spiritual boot-camp,” McDonald continued. “It is valuable in that it trains our spiritual muscles thereby rendering us more fit for the great battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil…The point is that we are not in a position to bargain with God about the exact dimensions of our cross. The fact that it is always so hard to bear is what makes it a cross. All we can do is ask the Lord for the grace to bear it and to do so with love and ultimately with joy. Naturally, it is a good and holy thing to pray that it will be lifted, but while we wait on God's answer, it is still easier on us if we embrace it.”
Rewritten for a non-religious audience, the passage could go something like this:
The point is that we are not in a position to bargain with life about the exact dimensions of our challenges. The fact that they are always so hard to bear is what makes them challenges, and they are simply a part of life. Naturally, it is a good thing to hope that the challenges will subside, but while we wait, it is still easier on us if we embrace and accept reality.
This is not necessarily a Christian concept—it’s a concept that modern psychology embraces. Denial makes it difficult, if not impossible, to move forward in an unpleasant situation.
Perhaps McDonald’s arguments and the courageous witness of Christians who suffer terribly yet know that God can produce good out of their suffering will inspire those who view suffering as meaningless to rethink how they see it, and allow pro-lifers to use suffering in their arguments against a culture of death.