1. We suffer because we fail to see the Christ who suffers. Christ’s suffering is rooted in the compassion of God.

Dear Friends!

I have just preached a Lenten Mission (24,25,26 of March)and topics are concerned with the modern life and its challenges. The three topics that i have reflected on are presented here in three different blogs. These are intended to help you prepare for the Holy Week. God Bless you all.

TALK ONE

INTRODUCTION

The field of human suffering is very wide, varied and multi-dimensional. When a child cries it has too many meanings that the mother is often confused and panicked as to what to do especially if the child is the firstborn: we wonder as to who is in pain and who is suffering. As little boys and girls we cried for all our whims and fancies and got all that we wanted: we wonder as to who is in pain and who is suffering. As young adults there are restrictions on both young men and young women to cry in public lest they embarrass people: More and more suffering is pressurized within us like the pneumatic tubes. In pain and in sorrow we behave differently by controlling our tears, sucking up our emotional explosives under our throats resulting in various psychosomatic illnesses and depression.

God is used or abused as a dart board with all our piercing comments with acute adjectives: A blind God, a deaf God, a heart-less God, a stone-God and the like. The loss of a friend, a spouse, a child or a parent brings in a total rejection of reality, meaninglessness and loneliness. The loss of people is the worst kind of suffering that we go through. The loss of power, money, and security triggers anger and frustration accompanied by revenge and sleepless nights and wasted daylights: this pain is tolerated with terms and conditions. Matured and disciplined people can distinguish between the loss of people and loss of things: Inability to distinguish these two result s in prolonged suffering.

WORLD OF SUFFERING:

Human world is full of suffering. Suffering is something which is wider than sickness. We can witness physical suffering that which affects our bodies and moral suffering that affects our soul. There are as many physical sufferings as there are moral sufferings in our society. Suffering is expressed in words such as agony, misery, distress, troubled by the feelings of mental or physical pain, miserable, and the like. A person who suffers never asks what and how of suffering but why of suffering. Suffering seems almost inexpressible and not transferable.

Everyone wants to know why we suffer since suffering seems to be and is almost inseparable from our earthly existence. Some of the reasons we hear are: Desire is the root cause of our suffering or we have sinned so we suffer. Our fathers and forefathers have sinned so God is punishing us. When Tsunami hit India almost all Christians said, ‘God is punishing Indians on account of Christian persecution.’ Or still others say ‘we are responsible for all the suffering because it is our fate: we are destined by God to suffer.’ Suffering and evil are identified with each other in our Christian tradition.

Though these explanations temporarily ease us a little, they seem to be insufficient. God is seen as a Loving Father who brings a lot of comfort to the prodigal son from his pain and suffering; a Just Judge who is merciful and forgiving. God is compassionate and concerned about our suffering. He saw the people of Israel and came down. God said to Moses: ‘I have heard the cry of my people.’ There are hundreds of similar passages in the Bible where God acts in favor of people in alleviating pain.

SUFFERING THAT COMES OUT FROM US:

When we concentrate on the suffering that has been created by us that we inflict on each other is endless let alone the nature has its own way. People suffer when we fail to love, respect and share our human worth with one another. People suffer when we say no to the commandments, no to God and neighbor which is eventually a no to self. People suffer on account of wrong influence and leadership in family, society and country.

SUFFERING THAT COMES TO US:

We have no control over nature and natural calamities bring suffering to us. We have no control over death which brings in suffering to us.

Now it is clear that so much of the suffering in the world is man-made. Though we have

explained a little on the outer forces that bring suffering to us, there is a huge area that is unknown to us on human suffering – our sufferings that have no explanation, no reason and meaning. The question ‘Why me?’ seems to be a better escape and God seems to be the only culprit. It is after all easy to blame God for all our unknown and mystery-area.

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE MYSTERY-AREA OF SUFFERING?

Sacred Scripture is a great book about suffering. We have two people to meet today to understand human suffering in a different angle. The first person is Job. We read in the Scriptures that Job is not guilty even by God’s standards but he had to go through a lot of suffering. The following lessons could be derived from the book of Job:
1. Not all suffering is a result of sin. We don’t always experience suffering as a punishment. Job’s suffering is the suffering on someone who is innocent. Why God lets it happen? It is beyond our human mind.
2. God permitted this testing – suffering has the nature of a test.
3. The test was done to demonstrate Job’s righteousness.
There are suffering moments inflicted by God upon us to witness God’s mercy: These punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline us (Mac 6:12).

The second person is Jesus as experienced in Good Samaritan. Love is the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. God gave His son for us in suffering and death on a Cross. Jesus calls Peter ‘Satan’ when Peter forced Jesus out of suffering. He eliminated suffering of different kind in the society. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, raised the dead thus he was sensitive to every human suffering whether it be a physical or moral suffering. The 8 beatitudes are addressed to the people who suffer in various ways. He is portrayed as the suffering servant of God. He suffers voluntarily and innocently (Is 53:7-9). Jesus did pray to take away the cup from him.

Good Samaritan knew well about the situation of the road from JRS to Jericho. Good Samaritan Jesus knows this road – He went all the way to JRS and Calvary. The following lessons that could be derived from the parable of the Good Samaritan:
1. Jesus has been through all suffering in body and soul before us. He suffered and died and was raised to life for us and for our hope.
2. Jesus is not a passerby, a sight seer or an aimless traveler. He knew his mission and vision clearly that we all need him sometime along our way to JRS. We will be beaten, bruised and struggling for life. We will even be close to death.
3. He carries each one of us on his shoulders and cares for us while we are so busy being unconscious or consciously absent in our own world.
4. We are called to be Good Samaritans who brings help in the suffering of others. We need love and love only to appreciate God’s compassion in our suffering.

CONCLUSION:

Not all the suffering has the same purpose and reason. Some are understood and some remain a mystery. There are innumerable sufferings in this world that are caused by the death of family and religious values in our society. There are sufferings on account of God’s will not as punishment rather a test to prove our righteousness. All our sufferings have only strengthened our faith since God gave us Jesus who took our suffering onto His and saved us. Like Jesus we are sent into the world not as passersby rather as Good Samaritans to share the suffering of others in word and deed. Jesus went about doing good. Amen.