Value Of Suffering

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Value Of Suffering

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The Value Of Suffering:

There is no such thing as pointless pain in the life of the child of God. How this has encouraged and strengthened me in the valleys of suffering and pain!

Among the many reasons God allows us to suffer, this is my personal favorite: it prepares us to be the radiant bride of Christ.

Oswald Chambers reminds us that "God has one destined end for mankind--holiness. His one aim is the production of saints."

Oswald Chambers wrote: "Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness."

Psalm 119:67: "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."

The Sanctification of Suffering: Great Article Please Read All...

But Christian suffering is not the mere experience of pain, nor even just the tolerance of pain. In the Christian philosophy of life, suffering is to be sanctified and the sanctification of suffering is called sacrifice. It took me twenty years to reach that definition. I share it with you.

Every human being suffers, some more and others less, but all have to undergo pain. But sadly and most tragically not everyone sanctifies their suffering to make it a sacrifice. And it is here that Christianity has so much to teach the world, in fact, so much to teach Christians. So we ask: How do we sanctify our sufferings such as they are and change them by divine alchemy into sacrifice? We do so through the mysterious power of prayers.

What do I do when I suffer prayerfully?

Now that is a new term, I suppose. When I suffer prayerfully I do many things but especially these:

first, I see that behind what I endure is not the person or the event or the mishap or even the mistake (as obvious as these may be). I acknowledge that the real active agent responsible for my suffering is the mysterious hand of God. When on one dramatic occasion while on the road, was being insulted a certain Shimei who cursed the king, called him a scoundrel and an usurper and began throw stones at him, ’s armed guard exclaimed, "Is this dead dog to curse my Lord the King? Let me go over and cut off his head!" But would not let him. "Let him curse," he replied. "If Yahweh said to him ‘curse ,’ what right has anyone to say ‘why have you done this?’ Perhaps Yahweh will look on my misery and repay me with good for his curse today." was inspired by Yahweh.

First, when I suffer prayerfully, I recognise that God is behind the suffering and I humble my head in faith. Second, when I suffer prayerfully, I trust that God has reasons for permitting what I endure and that in His own time and way, the experience now suffered will eventually somehow be a source of grace. What did in the Old Testament, Christ the son of , not yet born, enabled him to do by anticipation because of the mystery and merit of the Cross. If ever we are tempted to doubt the value of suffering patiently, according to the will of God, we have only to look at the Crucifix. Talk about value in suffering! But the value derives not from physical or spiritual pain, it comes from the Infinite God who showed us – this is God teaching us – by His own passion and death how profitable prayerful suffering can be. The most important single lesson mankind has to learn is the meaning of suffering and its value. It took God to teach us. And He has to resort to the extreme expedient of becoming man and suffering Himself to prove to us that suffering is not meaningless; that it is the most meaningful and valuable experience in human life.

For reasons best known to the Almighty, once sin had entered the world, grace was to be obtained through the Cross, which really means, through the voluntary acceptance of God’s will crossing mine. This voluntary acceptance on our part is what the Father required of His Son as the condition for opening the treasury of mercies. It is still the condition today for conferring these blessings on sinful mankind.

Suffering Elevates Prayer

No one who understands even the rudiments of Christianity should doubt that prayer is necessary for every believer if he wants to be saved. It is further well known that progress in virtue, and growth in holiness depends absolutely on fervent and frequent prayer. What is perhaps not so well known is that prayer has interior depths that are not exactly the same as having ecstasies or even going through what some of the great friends of God, as Francis of Assisi or of Sienna, received from the Lord. Those are depths, though I suppose more accurately, are heights of prayers.

We are talking about depths. These interior depths of prayer are not phenomena that some people mistakenly take to be God’s special presence and evidence of the miraculous diffusion of His gifts. The depths of which I am speaking are those of the souls in love with Christ the Saviour in prayers, when this prayer is joined with suffering willingly undergone or even willingly undertaken as evidence of a generous heart.

St. Ignatius, My Father and Guide

There is a passage in the writings of St. Ignatius that I almost hesitate quoting for fear of having him misunderstood. The saints sometimes said strange things. But it is worth the risk in order to make clearer what I think is so much needed today to protect people from what I consider the heresy of instant mysticism. When all sorts of fads and gimmicks are being sold to the faithful as meat. Ignatius:

"If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of the great holiness which he desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Saviour used to finish His sacrifice.

All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ."

We may object that these are the sentiments of a great mystic who, as all mystics, spoke in symbolic terms and are not to be taken literally. Not so, they are the prosaic words of all those who believe that the most pleasing prayer to God is one that proceeds not only from the lips or even from the heart indeed, but one that is suffering in union with the heart of the innocent Lamb of God. Not all the faithful are, called to the heights of this kind of prayer, although no Christian is exempt from his share in the life of the Master whose prayer to His Father was so elevated by the Cross.

Other things being equal, the more my prayer life is crucified, the more meritorious it becomes. The more what I say to God is combined with what I offer to God, the more pleased He will be. The more my petitions to the Lord are united with Sacrifice willingly made, the more certainly what I ask for will be received.

There is such a thing as cheap prayer. I call that comfortable prayer. There is such a thing as dear prayer. I call that sacrificial prayer. I don’t know where the idea came from that the essence of prayer is just praying and presto, we have satisfied our prayerful duties and can go on to other things. Not at all. Prayer is an ongoing enterprise and its continuance is especially a prolongation of what I say to God (which may not be much with what I endure and suffer for God, which can be very much).

Peaceful Endurance Through Prayer

We still have one more reflection on our general theme of prayers and suffering that should not be omitted: how to maintain ones’ peace of soul while undergoing whatever trial God may send us. This is no trivial question because for failure to answer it – either at all or at least satisfactorily – I am afraid that many otherwise good people do not grow to the spiritual stature that Providence intends for them, and certainly do not accomplish in their service for others all that they could