The Christian View Of Suffering

Details: 15 April 2011

Holy Week is upon us. This extraordinary time in the Church’s liturgical calendar provides a particularly meaningful opportunity to reflect on the Christian view of suffering in light of our Lord’s embrace of suffering and death to redeem us from our sins.

As God the Son, Jesus could have chosen any way to redeem us. So the fact that he chose to redeem us through His suffering and death necessarily gives meaning to every human beings experience with suffering and death.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services provides this explanation:

"For the Christian, our encounter with suffering and death can take on a positive and distinctive meaning through the redemptive power of Jesus’ suffering and death. As St. Paul says, we are "always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Cor 4:10). This truth does not lessen the pain and fear, but gives confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it."

Pope John Paul II provides this insight in his encyclical The Gospel of Life:

"This natural aversion to death and this incipient hope of immortality are illumined and brought to fulfillment by Christian faith, which both promises and offers a share in the victory of the Risen Christ: It is the victory of the One who, by his redemptive death, has set man free from death, "the wages of sin" (Rom 6:23), and has given him the Spirit, the pledge of resurrection and of life (cf. Rom 8:11).

"The certainty of future immortality and hope in the promised resurrection cast new light on the mystery of suffering and death, and fill the believer with an extraordinary capacity to trust fully in the plan of God. The Apostle Paul expressed this newness in terms of belonging completely to the Lord who embraces every human condition:

"’None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s’ (Rom 14:7-8). Dying to the Lord means experiencing one’s death as the supreme act of obedience to the Father (cf. Phil 2:8), being ready to meet death at the "hour" willed and chosen by him (cf. Jn 13:1), which can only mean when one’s earthly pilgrimage is completed.

"Living to the Lord also means recognizing that suffering, while still an evil and a trial in itself, can always become a source of good. It becomes such if it is experienced for love and with love through sharing, by God’s gracious gift and one’s own personal and free choice, in the suffering of Christ Crucified.

"In this way, the person who lives his suffering in the Lord grows more fully conformed to him (cf. Phil 3:10; 1 Pet 2:21) and more closely associated with his redemptive work on behalf of the Church and humanity.[87] This was the experience of Saint Paul, which every person who suffers is called to relive: ‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church’ (Col 1:24)."

It is awesome to contemplate the reality that we worship a God who "humbled Himself to share in our humanity" and fully understands the challenges of the human condition. It’s also awesome to know that the graces from our suffering can be offered for the salvation of souls. As mentioned previously, this truth should give confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it.

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.