01/16/2025
About SUFFERING
from St. Sofian's daily readings soon to be published by St. George Press:
God expressly leaves the suffering and sorrows that everyone is afraid of in our lives so they can humanize us, model us, and make us better, more honest, more tolerant, and maybe understanding of other people’s suffering. The one who does not suffer does not believe another…”Who hasn’t tasted bitterness does not know what sugar is.”
Suffering is allowed precisely like a chisel in the hands of a skillful sculptor who models a portrait or a very valuable object out of marble or stone. This is what God wants to do with those He loves. Suffering is thus allowed like medicine or surgery on a dying body, from which some members need to be amputated so it can be saved. We are all faced in life with troubles, sorrows, disappointments, hate, envy, dishonor, mocking, and malice from our fellow human beings; we are faced with illness, old age, and death. Every suffering is difficult and unpleasant because it is a defeat of our own will and plans, an obstacle placed across the path we have chosen.
Some people, when faced with suffering and sorrows, revolt, grind their teeth, strike back, curse, use insults, rebel even against God, blaspheming and swearing, asking, without humility and filled with anger, why they suffer. Such people, who do not admit their own transgressions and sins, are similar to the evil thief on Golgotha. We are all like this, we who revolt against the suffering God allows to come over us. Their revolt, instead of helping them and alleviating their pain, instead of chiseling and modeling them, deepens their suffering even more and isolates them from God and other people.
There are people who, when confronted with severe illnesses, defeats, woundings, humiliations, and losses of every kind, instead of revolting, cursing, or taking revenge, they take stock, look at themselves, and, to the question “Why do I suffer?”, find answers in their own abuse and sins committed against others and God Himself. This way, by admitting their sins, being sorry for committing them, repenting in the depths of their conscience, and resolving not to commit these sins anymore, they see a profound change in their lives.
