|
To suffer for others
To
suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the
sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in
order to become a person who truly loves—these are
fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them
would destroy man himself.
However,
the question arises: Are we capable of this? Is the
other important enough to warrant my becoming, on his
account, a person who suffers? Does truth matter to me
enough to make suffering worthwhile? Is the promise of
love so great that it justifies the gift of myself?
In the
history of humanity, it was Christian faith that had the
particular merit of bringing forth within man a new and
deeper capacity for these kinds of suffering that are
decisive for his humanity. The Christian faith has shown
us that truth, justice and love are not simply ideals,
but enormously weighty realities. It has shown us that
God—Truth and Love in person—desired to suffer for us
and with us. Bernard of Clairvaux coined the marvelous
expression, Impassibilis est Deus, sed non
incompassibilis, which means “God cannot suffer, but
he can suffer with.”
Man is
worth so much to God that He Himself became man in order
to suffer with man in an utterly real way—in flesh and
blood—as revealed to us in the account of Jesus’s
Passion. Hence, in all human suffering we are joined by
One who experiences and carries that suffering with us;
hence consolatio is present in all suffering, the
consolation of God’s compassionate love—and so the star
of hope rises. Certainly, in our many different
sufferings and trials we always need the lesser and
greater hopes, too—a kind visit, the healing of internal
and external wounds, a favorable resolution of a crisis,
and so on. In our lesser trials these kinds of hope may
even be sufficient. But in truly great trials, where I
must make a definitive decision to place the truth
before my own welfare, career and possessions, I need
the certitude of that true, great hope of which we have
spoken here. For this, too, we need
witnesses—martyrs—who have given themselves totally, so
as to show us the way—day after day. We need them if we
are to prefer goodness to comfort, even in the little
choices we face each day—knowing that this is how we
live life to the full. Let us say it once again: The
capacity to suffer for the sake of the truth is the
measure of humanity. Yet, this capacity to suffer
depends on the type and extent of the hope that we bear
within us and build upon. The saints were able to make
the great journey of human existence in the way that
Christ had done before them, because they were brimming
with great hope.
I would
like to add here another brief comment with some
relevance for everyday living. There used to be a form
of devotion—perhaps less practiced today but quite
widespread not long ago—that included the idea of
“offering up” the minor daily hardships that continually
strike at us like irritating “jabs,” thereby giving them
a meaning. Of course, there were some exaggerations and,
perhaps, unhealthy applications of this devotion, but we
need to ask ourselves whether there may not, after all,
have been something essential and helpful contained
within it.
What
does it mean to offer something up?
Those
who did so were convinced that they could insert these
little annoyances into Christ’s great “com-passion” so
that they somehow became part of the treasury of
compassion so greatly needed by the human race. In this
way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could
acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good
and of human love. Maybe we should consider whether it
might be judicious to revive this practice ourselves.
To be
continued next week ...
Spe
Salvi Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI to all “On
Christian Hope”
For comments/feedback: e-mail: caritas_manila@yahoo.com;
for donations to Caritas Manila: 563-9311; and for
inquiries: 563-9308 and 563-9298; Fax: 563-9306. |
