Be Worthy of Your Suffering
Redemptive suffering invites us to fully engage in the human experience.
Photo by Žygimantas Dukauskas on Unsplash
When we are born, we are promised nothing but the certainty of pain and discomfort. We arrive in this world in pain, leaving behind the cozy and safe environment of our mother’s womb to breathe cold and contaminated air for the first time. Most of us depart from this world in pain, succumbing to disease or clinging to life until the last breath. This is the harsh, unavoidable reality that society often chooses to ignore.
We are constantly told to seek happiness and lured into the latest gadgets or fashions, promised to make us feel incredible, confident, and satisfied. At any given time, in any given place, there is an array of products and slogans to help us feel anything other than pain or sadness.
As if shopping therapy wasn’t bad enough, we are drowning in a sea of prescription drugs targeted at blocking pain and removing every little bit of discomfort from our daily lives, be it a headache, cramp, or back pain. In our modern society, sickness and pain must be kept at bay, and potential suffering must be avoided at all costs, even to the extent of ending one’s life.
Euthanasia and abortion aim to avoid suffering by ending a life. In doing so, they place us in the dangerous position of deciding how much suffering a person should endure before their own or someone else’s life is ended. But who decides who is better off dead and who is better off alive? Rather than assuming the role of arbiters of human life, we must accept that suffering is an inseparable part of existence.
Existential Vacuum
We numb ourselves through life and confine the anguish of death to hospitals and nursing homes, never allowing pain to do its work in the human soul. Ironically, despite our pain-avoidance culture, we have been plagued by mental suffering as never before in human history. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 280 million people worldwide have depression, including 5% of the world’s adults and 5.7% of adults above age 60. In the United States alone, someone dies of suicide every 12 minutes– over 41,000 people a year. To put this in perspective, homicide claims less than 16,000 lives each year, according to 2013 CDC statistics.
The issue lies in our consumer-driven, anti-religious, and antiseptic society, which has not only neglected but also exacerbated the pain of the soul. Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl coined the term “existential vacuum” to describe the crisis of meaning he saw as a widespread phenomenon of the 20th century. Frankl argued that this existential vacuum manifests as a sense of boredom, where the lack of meaning in one’s life is often compensated for by the pursuit of power, money, or pleasure. In the 21st century, more and more people are experiencing this “boredom”—this existential vacuum—and seeking the help of a psychiatrist when, in earlier times, they would have turned to a pastor, priest, or rabbi.
The Meaning of Suffering
Rather than viewing suffering as the opposite of happiness, we should embrace the reality of a life that is both painful and joyful. When we accept pain as part of being alive, we can see it as an opportunity for growth and transformation, finding meaning amid suffering.
According to Buddhism, the root of all suffering is attachment and desire. The desire for material possessions, fame, power, and pleasure creates attachments that lead to suffering. These attachments are temporary and can be lost at any moment, leaving us feeling empty, disappointed, and unhappy. To overcome suffering, we must develop detachment from material desires. This detachment allows us to be content with what we have and to find happiness in the present moment.
Christianity also believes that suffering can help individuals detach from worldly pleasures and focus more fully on the spiritual life. However, Christianity takes us a step further with the concept of redemptive suffering - the belief that suffering can have a salvific value. This means that through the experience of pain and suffering, individuals can unite their suffering with that of Christ on the cross and offer it up for the salvation of others.
Suffering is an intrinsic part of life, but it can be transformed by love and offered up for the good of others and mankind. Jesus told His Apostles at the Last Supper, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Anyone can recognize the act of unselfish sacrifice of a soldier who gives his life for his country—he dies so that others may live in peace. We may not be called to make such a heroic sacrifice in our lives, but we can still conquer our daily sufferings through love. Every pain endured with love, every cross borne with resignation, benefits every man, woman, and child in the Mystical Body of Christ. This is the foundation of redemptive suffering: suffering for the greater good. Suffering for suffering’s sake is merely pain, but when one endures pain with love and purpose, it becomes bearable and even joyful. Any woman who has carried and delivered a child knows this truth.
Avoiding suffering by letting go of one’s desires is an honorable and attainable goal, but the idea that we can create a world free of suffering is utopian. We live in a broken world, and suffering is inseparable from man's earthly existence. The concept of redemptive suffering gives us a tool to overcome pain and is a powerful reminder that we are not alone in our struggles. In this way, suffering invites us to communion and solidarity, encouraging us to step out of our cocoon and fully engage in the human experience.