Brothers and Sisters,
There is no point in being sentimental about suffering. People sometimes can get so hurt by physical, verbal, emotional things and thus they became bitter and will not be relieved or redeemed. Yet, suffering can be an opportunity. It is question of idealism it, but of confrontation is with hope. The value of pain is not to lie in the pain of it, rather it is what the sufferer makes of it. Sometimes suffering can purify one’s soul and transforms one’s character. Pain can bear fruit. Pain is a very important part in our becoming truly human, that is, people of compassion and maturity.
Sometimes, we see the suffering as a punishment from God. But to this I say “no” because God punishes no one. God allows us to suffer, yes, but only because good can come from it. Our pain can bring us closer to God in order to experience His power and love by pain.
It is great comfort to know that Christ, the innocent and sinless One, has gone down the road of suffering before us, and gone down it to the end. On the cross He gathered up all of our human pain and made it His own.
We see in the middle of His passion, Christ cared about others, like the women of Jerusalem who cried for Him, with Him, and about the thief. And of course his mother too. There was nothing but love in Him. Even when they nailed His hands and feet on the cross, He went on loving.
Jesus did not die to save us from suffering. He died to teach us how to suffer. Though the road of suffering is narrow and difficult, it is not the same since Christ traveled it. So a bright light illuminates it. Those who link their suffering to those of Christ become a source of blessing for the entire community, and will share Christ’s Easter Glory.
