The transformed speaks only to relinquishers. All holders on are stranglers. - Rainer Rilke -
The Wednesday before Christmas I woke up with extreme pain in my back and muscles so stiff I could hardly move. It was a painful, slow endeavor to do something as simple as getting dressed, or any other activity that required bending or turning. I spent a great deal of the day, after I came back from the pharmacy with muscles relaxers, sitting with my back against a heating pad.
Concerned and acutely focused on what was, at that point, an annoying turn of events, it did cause me to do some unexpected Advent preparation, some interior searching. Here I now was, in pain, suffering, with other things to do to get ready to celebrate our Lord coming into this world, and now this. But as I sat with my heating pad comfortably in place, rereading Saint John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter on suffering, Salvifici Doloris, something that I remembered I had to hand, a light bulb moment started to occur. He had my attention when he said that suffering is always a trial, but that “to suffer means to become particularly susceptible, particularly open to the working of the salvific powers of God offered to humanity in Christ.” Here was an opportunity to meditate on divine love through being joined to suffering. A chance to see the beauty of Christmas opening out before me, to see Jesus breaking through to be with me, to make a choice with my suffering; to let it become redemptive and bear something good, or devolve into a long session of lamenting and self-pity.
My inability to move easily or without pain had forced me to stop, to look at God and listen to Him realizing anew my dependence on Him for everything, but equally important it had allowed me to enter into the mystery of divine love, “the ultimate source of meaning of everything that exists,” as John Paul II said. To the extent that we are “capable of grasping the sublimity of divine love,” he went on, the more we will discover the “why” of suffering that will lead us forward rather than spiral down into bitterness or anger.
Suffering is a mystery of divine mercy that we look at through eyes of faith. Yet when we do we can see, as John Paul II said, how suffering can serve as a way for conversion, for the “rebuilding of goodness” in us who suffer, strengthening our relationship with God and others as it leads us to something good. Suffering has meaning when it unleashes hope through the Redemption of Christ Jesus—it becomes linked to love, a love that opens us to something far greater than ourselves.
Take your most practical strengths and stretch them until they reach between two contradictions. - Rainer Rilke -
Here are four passages from St. Paul on suffering for you to reflect on. And in Paul’s enthusiastic way you will see the joy that can be found in suffering. Though I moved along during my reflection time over Christmas, I did not approach his level of acceptance and joy. However Lent is coming up, a season perfect for working on just such things...
Romans 8:16-17; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 2 Corinthians 1:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:16
The link below is to a short clip about Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (The House for the Relief of Suffering) founded by St. Padre Pio in Italy. Yes, it was partly picked because of being able to listen to some of it in lovely Italian (there is English subtitles for that part).
8 January 2016