The supreme goal of many people today, even many Christians, is to escape suffering at all costs, regardless of how minute or inconspicuous. Yet not even our Lord evaded suffering, being a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Is. 53:3). Indeed, no matter how far mankind advances, or thinks that he has, which religion he chooses or ignores, technology he creates or destroys, knowledge he’s gained or lost, he will never escape suffering.
Suffering isn’t something to fear, and it can even be something to glory in (Rom. 5:3-4). Suffering isn’t something to seek in and of itself, because it will come regardless, and because we were not made to suffer, but it is one of the greatest teachers in this life. With God’s help, suffering can always be turned into our benefit. Blessed Fr. Seraphim (Rose) said:
“Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world.
“I am at this moment in some pain, and I call on the Name of Jesus – not necessarily to relieve the pain, but that Jesus, in Whom alone we may transcend this world, may be with me during it, and His will be done in me. But in pleasure I do not call on Him; I am content then with what I have, and I think I need no more.
“And why is a philosophy of pleasure untenable? – because pleasure is impermanent and unreliable, and pain is inevitable. In pain and suffering Christ speaks to us, and thus God is kind to give them to us, yes, and [allows] evil too – for in all of these we glimpse something of what must lie beyond, if there really exists what our hearts most deeply desire.”
Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Hieromonk Damascene, St. Herman Press 2003.
In the face of suffering, we have a choice that no one can make for us. We can give up on hope and allow the suffering to destroy us, or we can hold onto hope and allow the suffering to transform us. Whichever our choice may be, we will find that hope is a slow death.
If we place our hope in products and pleasures of the world around us, in physical strength, in financial security, in ample beauty, in fullness of health, in the favor and approval of others, we may feel alive, but our souls will die daily along with the transiency of these passing mirages. As it says in Ode VII of the Canon of Repentance to Our Lord Jesus Christ: “Trust not, my soul, in health of body and quickly passing beauty. For thou seest that the strong and the young die.”
If, however, we place our hope in God, the Creator of the world around us, Who gives us strength in our weaknesses, security through any financial circumstance, true beauty of soul, health in spirit which transcends this corporal reality, favor in His eyes and the ability to persevere through the harshness of others, then we will die daily to ourselves. We will take up our cross to follow Christ, crucifying our old self, and thereby gain life everlasting.
Therefore, no matter what the world tells us to hope in, when sufferings come, let us always choose to place our hope in our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory, honor and worship, together with His unoriginate Father, and His Most Holy and good and life creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
-R.P.D. Sanders