Death is a part of life. Went with the cliche here but we all know that this is true. But at this time of year, a time that is normally filled with laughter and reunions and giving and an overall increased sense of wanting the goodwill of others, the presence of death and suffering is even more heartbreaking.
On a normal day we struggle with how to handle suffering-that in our own life and that in the lives of others. This question of suffering in the world has plagued philosophers, theologians and people of all walks of life from the beginning of time. That time-old question of “Why?”
If you have ever suffered with someone, then you know that we don’t have an answer for that question. At least if we genuinely love and care for others, we don’t dare to try to give shallow diatribes or simplistic and heartless answers—those that imply that God somehow thought that then losing a child, suffering with cancer, losing a home or job, etc, etc, etc “happened for a reason,” or that it was “part of His plan” when people are in the heart of their suffering.
The reality is that all things are part of God’s will, whether that is His active will- those things He causes to happen, or his permissive will- those things He allows to happen. Because of free will, we all have the freedom to make choices that have negative effects and those negative effects can hurt others. But while we may know this truth, in the midst of someone’s suffering, this is not the time to tell them this- instead, this is the time to suffer along with them in the valley of the question of “why?”
But what if there was something that suffering could accomplish that nothing else could? Let’s take Jesus for example. When he was on the way to the cross, He even asked for the possibility of a way out, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me” but the next part of his words are what make this desire different from our own, “...yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42).
So Jesus’ suffering was a part of God’s will, but why? His suffering brought about our redemption. He suffered and we received life. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it says, “By his passion and death on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion” (1505).
As Christians, we are supposed to live like Jesus, so what is the way that we can do the same thing in our own lives? Redemptive suffering. In redemptive suffering, we offer up our own sufferings to God, for the consolation of the heart of Jesus and for the redemption of others. Have a terrible backache today? Instead of complaining, offer it up to God for him to console or bring about the redemption of another. Get stuck in traffic on your way to work? Offer it up. Get a worrisome diagnosis? Offer it up.
Offering it up doesn’t take away the pain or sorrow of our suffering, but it can bring purpose and an answer to the question of “why?” We can be honest with God about our feelings, about our struggles and even our unanswered questions, but we can suffer knowing that Jesus suffered with us and that our suffering can have a purpose even if we don’t see it during our lifetime.
Start each day with a morning offering, prayer, asking God to take all the joys, struggles, disappointments, victories and defeats for the redemption of those in our lives. Do I like traffic? No. But if my sufferings and the way that I endure those sufferings- with kindness to the drivers around me instead of selfishness- can somehow bring about good for another, I would rather suffer than not. And only the strength and peace of Jesus can help us to do that. So let’s offer up 2025, come what may, for the glory of God and the gift of God’s grace in the life of others.
Kasey Jordan is a former missionary and lives in Monticello.
