One must be very careful with the concept of holy suffering. It is not easy to understand. Even saints have, at times, gotten it wrong. Biographers (of saints) have often misunderstood it and presented suffering as holy and a virtue.

I am not saying that anyone in these posts has it wrong. But I post this post as a balance to the whole thing.


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The reason why I bring this up .. is that many souls called by God .. do go through a period of coming to grips with suffering. There are two extremes, two mistakes, often made on the way. One is to avoid suffering all together (that is a mistake) and the other is to imagine that it has some hidden secret value and to either desire suffering or become in some way entirely passive to it (this is also a mistake).

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The reason why some saints embraced suffering (for a time) is that at a certain stage of spiritual growth we become aware that our habitual fear of suffering has often caused us to do things against our conscience. These saints came to a realization of the habitual nature of that human fear of suffering ... and tried to counter that habit through the use of seeking suffering and 'embracing' suffering – where they had sought to escape all suffering before.

Suffering that is unavoidable because we are following conscience ... should be accepted. It should not be a cause of us avoiding to do what we should (by conscience) do. Providence, is the best doctor .. and we should leave it to Providence.

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A priest I knew put it very well one day (a long time ago) ... Do not ask for suffering. If you insist .. He may give it to you. Do not tell God how to make you holy. Let God decide for himself when and what you are to suffer. You – abandon yourself to Providence day by day – that is all you do. That is much more difficult than ... suffering.”

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We are required ... to do our reasonable best, for ourselves, and for others, to relieve suffering when and where we can. The gospel example to cure the sick and alleviate the suffering of the poor and orphaned ... applies to ourselves also.

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The gospel imperative to seek justice for the oppressed .. includes ourselves. There is no holiness in abuse .. neither for the one abusing nor for the one being abused. We are required by the church and even more so by conscience .. to do all that we reasonable can to have justice prevail. If not love .. at least justice.

God may, if He wants to .. God may have some situation in which we suffer ... turn out to our spiritual benefit .. that is God's part. But our part – what is required on us .. is to do our own reasonable best to to avoid suffering and alleviate suffering.

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In all things, including suffering, our conscience must be our guide. The person who has spiritual maturity does not lose attention to the guide of his conscience on account of a fear of suffering. But neither does he seek suffering nor become passive to it ... nor does he avoid it as the cost of his conscience.

Suffering is not the path to God .. Providence is the path to God .. but we will have occasion to suffer some on the way. [empasis added]

So it seems to me.

-ray

making the suffering that comes my way--that I have not caused deliberately or willed or sought out--somehow sacred by bearing with it and offering it to the Lord as His servant.

However, I think that suffering can be overemphasized, too. I have read some Christian authors who seem to be bordering on masochism in their extolling of suffering. Others make some good pioints, but they forget that a lot of suffering happens by others' evil or by seemingly random disasters; and saying that God wills it makes God into a sadist.

Christ is our path to glory. If we suffer, then we must suffer for Christ. If we are joyful, then we must enjoy for Christ. Christ is at any beginning, Christ is at any end, Christ is all.

... Queen Catherine (first and legitimate wife of Henry VIII, from Spain, and very, very pious and devout), ... responds in this profound statement:

If I were to choose between extreme happiness and extreme sorrow, I would chose sorrow, because when one is very happy, one tends to forget God, but when one is in sorrow, one feels God's presence all around them.