What is suffering for? Ooopps! Is the title mistaken? Shouldn’t it be why suffering? Why did this happen to me? Why are they harming me? Why does God do this to me?
But God does not answer. We are in the same position as Job. Although Yaweh made him richer than beforeand although he lived a long life after his trials, the truth is that Job does not receive a clear answer to the “why” of his sufferings. (Jb 42: 10-17)
And there is no answer from God because suffering is not aswered by “why” but by “what for”. Jesus explained this before curing the man born blind, when asked if he had been born so due to his sin or to his parents’ sin.
“Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him”. (John 9: 1-3)
There wasn’t a “why” for that blindness. But there was certainly a “what for”: so that the works of God may be seen.
Thus, if we ask ourselves “why, Lord”? God remains in silence. But if we want to know “what for”, we do have an answer.
That answer was explained to us by Saint John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter on human suffering: “Christ has raised human suffering to the level of redemption”. (Salvifici Doloris #19)
Of redemption? Yes. Our sufferings, united to those of Christ can have a redemptive effect for the one suffering and for others.
So, what should be our attitude regarding that disease, or that financial difficulty, or that unjust persecussion, or that harm being done to me? To protest to God? God can aliviate suffering. God can heal us. And He can do that –even miraculously. But only if He wants to. And He wants to when it is convenient for our eternal salvation.
Therefore, when asking to be healed or to be relieved from suffering, we should alway pray as Jesus did before His Passion: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still,not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22: 42)
And while the trial, the suffering, the disease lasts, let us do as Pope John Paul II asked of us: unite our suffering to the suffering of Christ, so that it serves as redemption for us and for others.
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