TRANSFORMING YOUR SUFFERING INTO THE SUFFERING
- by Deacon Julián
Your pain, profound as it is, can be related to certain circumstances. You do not abstractly suffer your pain. You suffer because somebody has hurt you at a particular moment and at a certain place. Your feelings of rejection, abandon, and uselessness are rooted in very concrete events. In this way, all suffering is unique. This is especially true when we look specifically at the suffering of Jesus. His disciples abandoned him; Pontius Pilate condemned him; the Roman soldiers tortured and crucified him.
However, focusing on the specifics of your pain, you begin to lose the total meaning of your pain. You fool yourself into believing that if the people, circumstances and events were different your pain would not exist. This could be partially true, but the deeper truth is that the situation that produced your pain was nothing more than a way of getting in contact with the human condition of suffering. Your pain is a concrete means of partaking in the pain of humanity.
Once you discover that, you are able to live in solidarity with those who hunger, are homeless, imprisoned, sick, etc. Then your personal pain begins to transform into the pain, and you discover a new strength to overcome it. Herein rests the hope of all Christians.
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