Letter #2 - The Joy of Suffering

Dear Abba,

Χριστός ἀνέστη! Christ is Risen!

I thought it good that I would look at tonight’s Resurrection readings prior to the Divine Liturgy.

To my surprise, I thought I would meditate on the magnificent glory of the Resurrection; rather, I find the Catholic Epistle pointing me to suffering. Holy Week is over, what’s all this continued talk about suffering?! But maybe modernity has caused us to misinterpret the true connotation of suffering – maybe suffering ought to be adorned in beauty, maybe it is the ultimate form of love.

Peter says in tonight’s Epistle “For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” Wait, wait, wait… stop, that’s not really what I wanted to hear, Peter. Where’s the other option? Where’s the “and your life will have no suffering because you loved the Lord” option?! Well, Abba, I suppose that’s not an option for me. A life free of suffering doesn’t seem to be an option for any of us. No person walks around not knowing the definition of what it is to suffer, for we’ve all felt it.

But all this isn’t my realization, you and I will certainly suffer, but the Epistle tells me I get the choice of the ends of my suffering. That suffering is more complex than I understood, it’s not a one-tone term, it holds within it much more. Peter tells me there are two options in which I suffer:

A)   In connection with evil

B)   In connection with Good.

I thought about my own suffering, about those I’ve seen suffer – I thought about Christ who suffered on the cross for I the sinner. Anyone who suffers from addiction has known the suffering associated to it. Even at the most basic level, from a physiological perspective, there’s the suffering your body goes through as a result of withdrawal. Then there’s that beyond the physical, where you have become a slave to a craving, where your spirit is weighed down by your mental fixation on whatever your addiction may be. Surely, I’ve described suffering from evil at its epitome; but on a more micro level, suffering can’t be removed from sin because sin is outside of Him.

But suffering can’t only belong to the sinful, Christ Himself was without sin and suffered more for my sake than I ever could for His sake. The Epistle says that there’s suffering associated with good. So I contemplated, who else suffered as a result of good? And I suddenly found myself with a long list of names. St. Polycarp – burned at the stake; St. Paul – beaten to the point near death multiple times (also martyred); St. Xenia of Petersburg – mocked and insulted; even outside of those who have suffered for Christ, in the United States 20th century, civil rights activists in the black community suffered, some assassinated, others arrested. The world hates good, so those who work in the good are hated.

Why then did the Church place this Epistle before me during the feast of Resurrection, and Peter himself tells us. Christ has shown us the end of our suffering, that out of suffering for good comes Joy, Hope, and most importantly, Salvation. The Resurrection fills us all with immense joy, it is at the height of Christian celebration, death is conquered and we are freed. But death could only be conquered in His death; and that will be my meditation this evening as I stand before His Glorious presence as my spirit bends to His Lordship. The Resurrection and all its glory does not come without the betrayal of Christ, without the nails that pierced His hands and feet, without every ounce of blood that poured from Him for my sake. The beating, the spitting, the mockery, the Man sacrificed for the salvation of the world, without all of it, there is no Resurrection. How can I expect anything less in my life? How do I stand before God insisting He give me a life of comfort and luxuries? How do I tell Him I don’t want to suffer?

Surely, suffering is not an option, there is only choice in my suffering. Will I suffer in evil, in slavery and bondage to sin, will I suffer in life so that I may be led to death; or, will I choose to suffer in the Good, in the suffering that leads to virtue, that fosters brotherly love, the suffering that will find me sharing in the glory of His Triumphant Resurrection.

Christ is Risen! May I rise with Him! But first, may I die with Him, may I be counted worthy to suffer for His sake, may I be hated and despised by the world, and in this I will rejoice greatly.

Love you Abba.

Pray for me,

Your weak son