Suffering was not part of God’s original plan. But now, because of sin, there is plenty to go around.
Of the many kinds of suffering, some physical and resolved often through healing, perhaps it is spiritual and psychological suffering which is most difficult for us.
Faith is integral for healing. The material comes from the spiritual. We could say that faith is essential for healing the most acute suffering of mind and spirit.
We rightly turn to our faith when all the other props of life and habit seem to evanesce in moments of trial.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) treats of suffering in the context of faith.
Christ’s suffering for our sake is our starting point for finding encouragement when we need to grow in our faith as a strength and support amid life’s trials.
The Catechism proposes the potential of a “new meaning in Christ” for those burdened by suffering of whatever kind.
Christ took the weight of evil and sickness upon Himself. Through His cross, suffering is no longer meaningless; it becomes a way to participate in His saving work and unites us to His Passion (cf. CCC, n. 1505).
The meaning of suffering in union with the Lord can become a positive force for the spiritual renewal of which we are always in need throughout life.
Knowing that a loving God desires our good is a strong support when the flesh seems weak under the weight of various burdens, both physical and psychological.
Consequences of the Fall: Original sin deprived mankind of original holiness, leaving human nature wounded and subject to ignorance, suffering, and death (cf. CCC, n. 405).
Our Lord died to heal through His Resurrection the wounds of our fallen human nature with its constant experience of temptation.
Physical illness and mental vexation threaten the spiritual resources we need to navigate this “vale of tears” as we journey toward our heavenly homeland. God’s power is not vanquished by any earthly force or reality. Faith is the means of tapping into God’s power by means of grace to overcome the road bumps we meet on the way.
The “slough of despond” can be very deep, but the Lord can reach all the way to the bottom to pull us out.
A search for God: While illness can cause anguish and despair, it frequently provokes a search for God and spiritual maturity, helping individuals discern what is essential in life (cf. CCC, nn. 1500–1501).
We are always, by Baptism and grace, members of the “communion of saints.” We are never alone because our Lord and the triumphant souls who enjoy His victory now in heaven are both our examples and our intercessors, perennial sources of strength and sustenance.
The communion of saints: By “offering up” our daily crosses, pain, and trials, we can join our suffering to Christ’s, making it a powerful tool for reparation and intercession for others (cf. CCC, nn. 1521, 618).
Our parents often told us when young to “offer up” our in incomprehension in the face of frustrated will or misplaced desire for what we do not need, as well as physical and spiritual pain.
Christ acts in His sacraments. And one of the seven is specifically for the sick and the dying, those among us facing most profoundly the reality of our human weakness in the most undeniable of ways.
Sacramental grace: Christ intimately associates Himself with the sick. The Church provides the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to offer the comfort, strength, and grace needed to face suffering with faith (cf. CCC, nn. 1499–1532).
Suffering at times confines us to our beds or prevents us from working or tending to others. In our meditation we can revisit the reasons for suffering and the answers in God’s plan to the dilemmas it proposes.
The fall of our first parents is the source of all wounds, physical and material, but in particular of the reality of personal sin which involves every human person.
“God is infinitely good and all His works are good. Yet no one can escape the experience of suffering or the evils in nature which seem to be linked to the limitations proper to creatures: and above all to the question of moral evil.
“Where does evil come from? ‘I sought whence evil comes and there was no solution,’ said St. Augustine (Confessions, 7, 7, 11: PL 32, 739), and his own painful quest would only be resolved by his conversion to the living God. For ‘the mystery of lawlessness’ is clarified only in the light of the ‘mystery of our religion’ (2 Thess. 2:7; 1 Tim. 3:16). The revelation of divine love in Christ manifested at the same time the extent of evil and the superabundance of grace (cf. Rom. 5:20). We must therefore approach the question of the origin of evil by fixing the eyes of our faith on Him who alone is its conqueror (cf. Luke 11:21–22; John 16:11; 1 John 3:8)” (CCC, n. 385).
Faith grows with knowledge of God’s loving plan for our salvation, meeting us in Christ’s sacred humanity precisely and perfectly where we are wounded. The Incarnation is the medicine of faith for all, condemned to eternal suffering in hell before the redemption of the cross.
The suffering and sin which seem so prevalent and permanent are not invincible in the face of God’s love. He is always stronger than any force which seems to threaten our well-being, body and soul.
The Catechism repeats the often quoted shorthand for the victory promised us in Christ: “Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20).
The Church addresses the need to repent of sin for the sake of healing in the Sacrament of the Sick, or Extreme Unction. The patient is first a penitent: the Sacrament of Confession precedes the anointing. Whether at the end of life or amid its various challenges, we are called to take account of our own sins as part of the process of healing God promises.
“The reality of sin
“Sin is present in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this dark reality other names would be futile. To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God and opposition to Him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on human life and history” (CCC, n. 386).
“Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind’s origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving Him and loving one another” (CCC, n. 387).
“Original sin — an essential truth of the faith
“With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also illuminated. Although to some extent the People of God in the Old Testament had tried to understand the pathos of the human condition in the light of the history of the fall narrated in Genesis, they could not grasp this story’s ultimate meaning, which is revealed only in the light of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 5:12–21). We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin. The Spirit-Paraclete, sent by the risen Christ, came to ‘convict the world concerning sin’ (John 16:8), by revealing Him who is its Redeemer” (CCC, n. 388).
“The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the ‘reverse side’ of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 2:16), knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ” (CCC, n. 389).
Faith is God’s power to bear us up along the vicissitudes of our short earthly journey. We grow stronger amid our suffering both to bear it and to be saved in it if we invest in our faith by knowing and practicing it daily in both the little and big ways of word and action. It begins with our intention to conform ourselves to God’s holy will in all things and to please Him first.
Thank you for reading. Praised be Jesus Christ, our King, now and forever.
