June 3, 2007

May the Lord grant you His peace:

I was recently in a conversation with one of the Brothers about suffering. We talked about JP II’s “Meaning of Human Suffering” and the idea of “redemptive suffering.” To tell you the truth, I find the idea of redemptive suffering difficult to really understand. I understand that by uniting our suffering with Christ we participate in the process of redemption for ourselves and for others. I understand that intellectually and I know that it’s true. Honestly though, I can’t really grasp it in my heart.

What I can grasp though is that God truly loves me. If this is true (and I know that it is), then whatever God allows to happen to me is in some way good for me. I may not always immediately recognize the good, but I always try to trust that it is, in fact, good. God wants to bring some good out of the situation. It may be a good that I will never know in this lifetime. It may be a good that will result in my eternal salvation or the eternal salvation of someone else. Just because I don’t know it doesn’t make it any less real.

If God allows it, then it makes sense to me that I should surrender to it. If I can’t change or avoid it, it would only make it worse if I were to complain or resist it. Rebelling, doubting, lamenting does not take away the suffering; it makes the suffering worse. If I truly accept it, I am making it the best that it can be. It is a surrender to God, not to the suffering—knowing that He will make good out of it. By this process of surrender and acceptance, I believe that a peace and a strength enters in that is personally liberating for me and can’t help but have a positive impact on those around me.

Everything God does is for our good. We have to decide whether to handle it His way or our way. Our way leads to anxiety and frustration. His way leads to peace and eternal joy. His way makes our suffering redemptive for ourselves and for others.

Peace and Blessings,

Br. Giuseppe Maria Siniscalchi, CFR

St. Joseph Friary, New York, NY

_____________________________________________