The question surely has more than one intrigued. Contains, apparently a contradiction. How to suffer and be happy?
Of course, it doesn’t mean you have to suffer to be happy, but yes we should learn how to suffer to be happy. This is because suffering is part inexorable life.
The suffering is the consequence of sin, since God, in his goodness and loving creation, I had never thought of something like that for us.
God never wanted the suffering, you do not want us to suffer. But as to the cause of that sin, we have no choice, must face the life with maturity and fight for our happiness.
Some sufferings are worth it, and others do not…
This is something that I would like to clarify very well. Some sufferings come, and are a part of life, do not ask, we do not want them, but they are part of the complex reality in which we live.
For example, a mother sacrifices her dream because she has to breastfeed and take care of her baby throughout the early morning, even though she have the next day a long day of work.
Parents who have to sacrifice and “sweat” to feed and provide a good education to their children, as I never had them.
A person who at some point in your life have to learn to live with a disease without any responsibility on his part beyond having inherited genetically from their ancestors.
However, there is another kind of suffering that are the fault of the wrong decisions, and in that sense have an explanation rather more easily, and even, we could say that the person he sought.
I think, for example, at the suffering that passes through a family when you have a child for bad behavior becomes a drug addict.
The trauma of the many children who cross arid valleys, due to their parents ‘ divorce. Young people who find it very difficult to take his life with responsibility and commitment.
In the many forms of domestic violence. The corruption that we see everywhere, sowing the seeds of poverty and social inequality, generating increasing social gaps. The list could go on.
Life only makes sense thanks to the love
Who of us does not want to be loved? Do you loved, embraced, protected? As well as to love, to love, to cultivate friendships, help and assist those who need help.
When circumstances are pleasant and the grounds are amiable, I must say that usually does not cost you much. If it is for example of sacrifice for the good of a child, it’s not so difficult to find the strength to do it. In the end, what parent wants is the best for their children?
But what is often our reaction, against God himself, when he touches the door of our home, the death of a family member? How is our relationship with God when a child is afflicted by an incurable disease?
What thoughts of revenge does not have, even against God, when we suffer injustice without any guilt?, how many times do we turn against God and we claim no mercy?
Where is his love and goodness when we are suffering without a fair reason?, where is God when we feel alone in our suffering?
It is in these moments that we must overcome those feelings, and learn to love God above all things. Even about our suffering, He is not the culprit, He doesn’t want it.
But we seek at all costs to a fault, and as we can’t accept that life treats us well, we do not believe that God even in the midst of suffering we love it and we want to.
We must make a conscious effort to recognize what “god” we are looking at. What a god that does not cares about us and we have abandoned? This is not our God.
The God of our christian faith, is a Father who gave his only Son to die on the cross, and to give his life for love for us.
It is a Child who took in his flesh our wounds and pains, and sacrificed himself to give a new meaning to this life corrupted by sin and its consequences.
Our God created us for love, and by an act of mercy even more incredible, he asked his Son a sacrifice unimaginable.
Only then, it makes sense to take our suffering and bring us closer to the cross of Christ, because that way, our own crosses also become an occasion for love.
My own suffering, that makes no sense, participates in and completes the redemptive work of Christ. And if I’m together with Him in his sacrifice, participated also the joy of his Resurrection (1 Peter 4: 13).
Of course this attitude requires on my part to love Jesus, to give him my burdens and not to leave Him because of a grudge or bitterness.
The suffering can be a way of love
How many times have we been told Christ that whoever wants to follow him must take up their cross in tow to be his disciple? (Matthew 16:24).
This involves taking life as it is, assuming what is good and bad, the joys and sorrows. Christ wants us to be full, not half, or we’re with Him or not, for God, there is no middle term.
You are cold or hot (Revelation 3, 14). Our language should be “yes, yes or no, not” (Matthew 5:37). When we opted for the path of the christian life, we know very well what is the horizon: the cross. But a cross, that after three days, it becomes the Tree of life.
Christ teaches us by his example, to give one’s life for one’s friends. And not only that, worry about the unknown that is pulled and abused the side of the road (Luke 10, 25-37).
Until you reach the point of telling us that we are to love one’s enemies (Matthew 5: 38-48). Never return evil when harm us (Romans 12: 17-21), but always to love and to do what is good.
Even when it comes to loving our loved ones, the real commitment by the other, implies generosity, renunciation of personal sacrifice, delivery… and all this, if we want to live as Christ lived, without half measures, means a fee of suffering.
Since we do not waive our whims, tastes, interests, spaces and amenities, you do not always have to be bad.
But the love that we learn of Christ, always puts others before himself, and is willing to give up himself for the good of the other.
This entails a fee of mortification. And the truth is that, in today’s culture, we are becoming less and less accustomed to living in such acts of generosity.
My suffering can be a way of realization
All this said, we can understand a little bit more, and better, how the suffering experienced by the hand of Christ is a journey of personal fulfillment.
Through him, we grow in love and make our life an act of praise to God, looking for the common good, and of course, our own salvation.
With Christ, we learn that we must be the protagonists of our suffering, making it a means to get closer and be more like Him.
As well as the love, the suffering is also a way to have a more intimate relationship with Him.
Because it is the way by which you show your love for the other in a unique way. Thus we can understand the statement of Augustine, when he says in the proclamation of the Easter Proclamation:
“O happy fault that merited such a Redeemer!”. Necessary was the sin of Adam, which has been forgiven by the death of Christ.