Joy in suffering
There can be joy in suffering only if we identify ourselves with Christ. With Christ, suffering becomes an act of selfless love that can take on anything. Only in Him can we find joy and meaning in suffering. With Him, suffering loses its negative and painful character, and assumes the happy salvific character.
We need to process this truth of our faith,always asking for God's grace and training our faculties to adapt to this reality. That's why Christ told us clearly that if we want to follow Him, we simply have to deny ourselves, carry the cross and follow Him. There's no other formula.
This self-denial and carrying of Christ's cross will let us see that suffering is obviously the consequence of our sins, and of others. Embracing suffering the way Christ embraced His cross unites our suffering with that of Christ.
Our motive is like that of Christ. It's the desire to conquer that suffering and ultimately our death through his death and resurrection, and obeying God's will just like Christ obeyed His Father's will. "Not my will but yours be done."
Our reaction to any suffering in this life should therefore be theological and ascetical-guided and inspired by faith. It should not just be physical or a natural affair, but reflects the spiritual and supernatural realities.
Everyday let us find ways of deepening our understanding and appreciation of this truth of our faith, and of acquiring the capacity to live it fully, until we can say that we are finding joy in our suffering.Let us often meditate on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ since it is where we can get the proper inspiration.
At least we can say that we complain less when some suffering comes our way, or we don't lose our peace, our reaction to it goes beyond the senses and feelings, etc. We get more convinced that going through some suffering does a lot of good to us and everybody else.
To train ourselves for this, we might have to pursue a plan of what is called active mortification. We make a list of acts of self-denial and even of corporal mortification like fasting, abstinence and the recourse to ascetical instruments like the cilice and the discipline.
We should be familiar with these instruments that were useful in ages past, as they are useful and relevant now,given the temper of the times, in an environment where self-indulgence is a mainstream practice. We need to recover the use of these instruments, which are effective in curbing our tendency to indulge ourselves.
We have to overcome the apologetic attitude whenever this topic is brought up. It's not something to be feared or be a shame dabout. It is actually part of the Good News that will bring us a lot of joy.
This truth of our faith should be discussed more often in churches, families, schools, offices and workplaces.From there, let's hope that this truth gets to be considered seriously in the bigger worlds of business, politics and international relations.
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