“…it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.” – John 9:3
Each of us have stories of our own suffering. Sometimes we bring these sufferings on by our own actions, but many times the sufferings we endure are the effects of sin by others and simply the fallen nature of the world (see CCC 324). The Good News is that none of our sufferings ever have to go to waste if we approach them with the mind of Christ instead of the view of the world (see CCC 618).
The first way we can see our sufferings in a new way is by learning how to accept and give them back to God, transforming our hurts from earthly pain into a beautiful spiritual offering. When we encounter our own sufferings, we are given a gift—the chance to participate in Christ’s saving mission by offering God our hurts, failures, illnesses, sorrow, and grief. The Catechism teaches: “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” (CCC 1505). We can unite our suffering with Christ’s suffering on the cross for the salvation of the world. “Christ calls his disciples to ‘take up [their] cross and follow (him)’… In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries” (CCC 618). What a paradox: suffering is not a waste, but rather a gift! St. Paul writes, “Indeed, as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, does our consolation overflow. When we are made to suffer, it is for our consolation and salvation” (2 Corinthians 1:5, 6).
The second way we can view our sufferings in a new light is by recognizing the eternal purpose of the suffering if we allow Him to work through us. It is a great mystery, but God can make something beautiful out of all our sufferings. The Gospel passage this Sunday recounts when Jesus healed the man born blind (John 9: 1-41). Jesus’ disciples asked Him why the man suffered: “As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him‘” (John 9:1-3).
“The fact that God permits physical and even moral evil is a mystery that God illuminates by his Son Jesus Christ who died and rose to vanquish evil. Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.” CCC 324
This is an aspect of God’s permissive will; He allows evil, tribulations, and pain to exist in the world not because He desires us to suffer, but because He knows that He can bring about something glorious from it. (Read more here on the Problem of Evil.) In this case, the man’s healing glorified God; he was a living testimony to his family and neighbors of God’s power and goodness. We’ll see the same thing happen next Sunday when we encounter Jesus as he raises Lazarus after four days in the grave. He told Mary and Martha: “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4).
Jesus please help me accept my sufferings and unite them to You. Open my eyes to see and trust in Your greater purpose. Give me the graces I need to participate in Your saving mission by allowing You to transform my places of pain into a path of redemption, consolation, and glory.