Of Men and Suffering
abomino
Posts: 9
Is writing not just another way to paint a picture? Share a memory, share a story, give someone good news or in fact give them bad news? I saw fellow Marines get the bad news letters while on some of my many deployments. Their smile would turn to a frown. Some would yell and some would cry (yes Marines do cry, contrary to Jethro Gibbs on NCIS) some would just go into an almost shock of some sort. I never got one of those letters, I had no one to write me any. I knew going in that it would be a mistake to be attached to anyone or anything at all. The first Gulf was a strange place in time for me. My introduction to the world at large, my introduction to suffering, fear, bravery, death, dying, and more than anything else….LIFE ITSELF! How very precious it is.
I don’t always think that way. I am like most of you here. When I am having my issues, life can seem pointless in the moment. I have the thoughts. I try to rationalize and not internalize. It is tough at times to see past moments. I was trained to see past moments and whiteboard out every scenario and variable in any operation. It works in life as well. So why the loathing of myself at times when I have so much to be happy about in life? The short answer is I do not know. We all suffer at various times in varying spaces.
As a child I never dreamed of being a writer. I had however aspired to be the things most children aspire to be...a fireman, a stuntman, perhaps have the job of the old Latin gentleman on Fantasy Island (WOW, I am really 41..not sure how that happened). As a child I remember very well being in pain with a stomachache and pondering my anger toward Adam and Eve. As a child who just heard about them in Sunday school, I placed blame on them instead of myself for eating too many cookies. For some reason, this was on my mind this evening. Suffering. Being Opus Dei, I obviously read all the books by our founder St. JoseMaria. One passage that I always remember on suffering is this: "I will tell you which are man’s treasures on earth so that you will appreciate them: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonour, poverty, loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison.."
One definitive answer
Faced with the weight of all this, a Christian can find only one genuine answer, a definitive answer: Christ on the cross, a God who suffers and dies, a God who gives us his heart opened by a lance for the love of us all. Our Lord abominates injustice and condemns those who commit it. But he respects the freedom of each individual. He permits injustice to happen because, as a result of original sin, it is part and parcel of the human condition. Yet his heart is full of love for men. Our suffering, our sadness, our anguish, our hunger and thirst for justice.
Difficulties give us a share in Jesus’ life
The remedy is to look at Christ, if when faced with suffering, you at some time feel that your soul is wavering. The scene of Calvary proclaims to everyone that afflictions have to be sanctified, that we are to live united to the cross.
If we bear our difficulties as Christians, they are turned into reparation and atonement. They give us a share in Jesus’ destiny and in his life. Out of love for men he volunteered to experience the whole gamut of pain and torment. He was born, lived and died poor. He was attacked, insulted, defamed, slandered and unjustly condemned. He knew treachery and abandonment by his disciples. He experienced isolation and the bitterness of punishment and death. And now the same Christ is suffering in his members, in all of humanity spread throughout the earth, whose head and firstborn and redeemer he is.
I don’t always think that way. I am like most of you here. When I am having my issues, life can seem pointless in the moment. I have the thoughts. I try to rationalize and not internalize. It is tough at times to see past moments. I was trained to see past moments and whiteboard out every scenario and variable in any operation. It works in life as well. So why the loathing of myself at times when I have so much to be happy about in life? The short answer is I do not know. We all suffer at various times in varying spaces.
As a child I never dreamed of being a writer. I had however aspired to be the things most children aspire to be...a fireman, a stuntman, perhaps have the job of the old Latin gentleman on Fantasy Island (WOW, I am really 41..not sure how that happened). As a child I remember very well being in pain with a stomachache and pondering my anger toward Adam and Eve. As a child who just heard about them in Sunday school, I placed blame on them instead of myself for eating too many cookies. For some reason, this was on my mind this evening. Suffering. Being Opus Dei, I obviously read all the books by our founder St. JoseMaria. One passage that I always remember on suffering is this: "I will tell you which are man’s treasures on earth so that you will appreciate them: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonour, poverty, loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison.."
One definitive answer
Faced with the weight of all this, a Christian can find only one genuine answer, a definitive answer: Christ on the cross, a God who suffers and dies, a God who gives us his heart opened by a lance for the love of us all. Our Lord abominates injustice and condemns those who commit it. But he respects the freedom of each individual. He permits injustice to happen because, as a result of original sin, it is part and parcel of the human condition. Yet his heart is full of love for men. Our suffering, our sadness, our anguish, our hunger and thirst for justice.
Difficulties give us a share in Jesus’ life
The remedy is to look at Christ, if when faced with suffering, you at some time feel that your soul is wavering. The scene of Calvary proclaims to everyone that afflictions have to be sanctified, that we are to live united to the cross.
If we bear our difficulties as Christians, they are turned into reparation and atonement. They give us a share in Jesus’ destiny and in his life. Out of love for men he volunteered to experience the whole gamut of pain and torment. He was born, lived and died poor. He was attacked, insulted, defamed, slandered and unjustly condemned. He knew treachery and abandonment by his disciples. He experienced isolation and the bitterness of punishment and death. And now the same Christ is suffering in his members, in all of humanity spread throughout the earth, whose head and firstborn and redeemer he is.
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Yes, but that is not the whole picture. Jesus was loved, had friends, shared meals with them and with others. He laughed, and had a great sense of humour. He attended weddings, and made good wine. Yes, he was a refugee and an exile, but that was not the total picture. He had parents that loved and protected him. He practiced a trade. He read, and studied, and prayed. He confronted, and forgave. He was transfigured, and he rose from the dead. He baked fish for his disciples. And he sent them his spirit.0
