By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
Pain and suffering are the lot of humankind. No one is ever free of them. Some take them philosophically while others could not bear the suffering that they end their lives. As Hamlet would put it, “To die, to sleep – no more – and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to – ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!” The few who heroically bore their suffering, not as a burden but as an offering, become saints.
The reason that there are so many saints in the Catholic Church is because suffering is a large part of the human condition and they were able to overcome it by a deep faith in God who showed them the path of suffering.
We all suffer, whether we are Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim or Atheist. While we live, we are going to suffer pain at some point in our lives. Some will have it excruciating, others tolerable.
Some people are going to be naturally more physically or mentally tolerant of different types of suffering. In the same way, something that seems minor to someone might be great suffering for another.
Suffering to a Catholic is not something without reason or purpose. The Catholic faith teaches us that although suffering by nature is not inherently good, God allows us to suffer for the good of our souls. It “refines us and helps us to get to heaven if we allow it.” This is the essence of Catholic suffering.
According to St. Augustine of Hippo, God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering” while St. Frances de Sales said, “All the science of the Saints is included in these two things: To do, and to suffer. And whoever had done these two things best, has made himself most saintly. “
Jesus told us that “whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24). The cross, the symbol of suffering, demonstrates this path for us to follow. He literally took up His cross. Imagine, the Lord of the Universe humbled himself and took into Himself the suffering as an example on how we should deal with pain and suffering. Did not even the Blessed Mother, herself without sin had seven swords pierced into her heart? The sight of the Mater Dolorosa is a sight that should help us bear our own arrows.
The suffering of Christ and the Blessed Mother and thousands of martyrs and saints were not wasted as some cynics claim but as offerings for salvation. The Church even teaches that we can offer our suffering for the good of our souls and for others, including those in purgatory. We can complain about our suffering but for the Church it is not only a purifying process, as gold is refined by fire but also an act of faith. As some wise people say, “If we’re going to suffer anyway, we might as well put it to good use.”
That is what Fr. John Hollowell did. Last February 14, a Valentine’s Day, LifeSiteNews reported on a Catholic priest who prayed that “God would grant him some suffering that he could offer on behalf of victims of clerical sexual abuse”. Well, God granted his prayer and sent him a brain tumor. The priest now asks his congregations to give him names of victims so he can offer his suffering to God by name.
Fr. Hollowell announced his brain tumor and his offering. He said he “embraced the suffering willingly.” In 2018 he asked, “if it be God’s Will, that I might be given some small share of the Cross to carry for victims of priestly abuse… if there was some suffering, I could undertake on behalf of all the victims, some cross I could carry, I would welcome that. I feel like this is that cross, and I embrace it willingly.”
Saint John Paul II said, “Don’t waste your suffering…Those who share in the sufferings of Christ are also called, through their own sufferings, to share in glory.”
St. Pio of Pietrelcina revealed what Christ told him, “I want your soul to be purified and tried by a daily hidden martyrdom… How many times, would you have abandoned me, my son, if I had not crucified you?”
