"From all their distress, God rescues the just." Ps 34
Distress and upset comes to everyone. We can curse it, fight it, deny it or cry over it, but we cannot avoid it, and our faith tradition is clear. Until we learn to accept suffering as an ordinary part of every life, we will waste time trying to elude it. If Jesus, the God man, was not immune to suffering, neither are we.
At the same time, the Gospel does not ask us to seek suffering, but to accept it when it comes, often without warning or obvious meaning. In a poignant and demanding book, Where the Hell is God, Richard Leonard, an Australian Jesuit, explores suffering from the inside. Devastated and lost after a car accident that left his sister a quadriplegic, Leonard reminds his readers that God does not will our suffering, but will enter it with us if we allow it. Avoiding easy answers and cliches about God testing us, Leonard invites his readers to walk together in faith as they seek meaning in darkness.
The psalmist also suggests that when we are just, especially in the face of evil and anger, God will find us and show us a path through suffering into a place of peace. Confronting our confusion and occasional rage at the randomness of suffering allows us to discover the God who, like a mother, holds us in the palm of his hand.
Today, revisit an incident of suffering in your life and ask God for healing.
How do you make sense of random suffering?
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