Lenten Series on Suffering

I continue exploring the themes from my Advent series on the Christian meaning of suffering and the Cross.

On Friday’s during Lent I’m publishing a series of reflections at Catholic Exchange. Here is an excerpt from today’s, along with a link to the full article:

My work as a psychiatrist often reminds me of two inescapable truths. First, to a greater or lesser degree, everyone suffers in this life. Second, we often have no idea what other people are suffering interiorly. Appearances frequently deceive, and our assumptions about the lives of others—even people we think we know well—routinely miss the mark. Since my professional work involves diving deeply into my patients’ hidden pain and anguish, I want to share with you here in this Lenten series some of what I have learned about the Christian meaning of suffering.

In my clinical practice, I frequently see patients who have endured unspeakable evils. They bear an anguish that cannot be communicated or comprehended. Trying to accompany them in their pain has been my daily bread for over twenty years. This professional experience has provided a window into the suffering of the human heart that most people probably cannot access in the same way, at least outside of their own personal experience of suffering.

When we suffer, we understandably want to comprehend the reasons for our anguish. My patients often ask, as I ask when I am in pain: Why is this happening to me? Did I do something wrong to deserve this? Is God punishing me? Why is God—who is all good, all knowing, and all-powerful—allowing me to suffer when He could have prevented it? These questions are perfectly natural. Notice, however, that they all involve asking God to teach me about my suffering. We want God to explain our anguish to us. We pray, “Help me make sense of my suffering.”

But this side of eternity, we are not usually given the answers to those questions, for our finite intellects are incapable of comprehending the reasons behind God’s providential designs. God’s answer to Job’s questions was itself a question: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4). God did not explain Job’s suffering to him, except to say that the answer was beyond Job’s or his friends’ capacity to comprehend…

Click here to read the rest of the article.

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