2000 years later we seemed quite removed from this message of hope and this spirituality of finding meaning in suffering. If anything we seem to avoid suffering altogether and look for ways of escaping the great challenges that suffering poses. Instead of looking for authentic healing we choose to overmedicate ourselves. Instead of being reflective and honest with ourselves we escape through substance abuse or isolation. Instead of dealing with the interpersonal challenges of relationships and families we retreat to the safety of virtual social networks. Instead of addressing the social needs of one another we fight for our own self-interest and refuse to support any social services.

Suffering is brutal and painful and it is almost impossible to make sense of intense suffering that in many cases seems very meaningless. It is a daunting task to ask anyone to truly engage with their own suffering. And yet, for those of us who are Christians, a symbol of intense suffering continuous to be the central image in our lives. That is because at the heart of our spirituality is the concept that God loves us with such great intensity that he shared in our suffering through Christ to demonstrate how the power of God’s love can overcome even death itself. For members of the Passionist family this is not merely an historical exercise. It is our fundamental belief that God continues to be present in all the personal and social pains that the world experiences. If we allow God to guide us through we will find a moment of grace in the trials and tribulations we face throughout our lives.

Apparently St. Paul of the Cross was able to capture meaning of the suffering to the people he corresponded with. In almost every case his message was that their suffering was a spiritual moment for growth and change. His ultimate doctrine of suffering which in his correspondence he called the “science of the saints” is that it is in suffering that one has the chance to experience extreme humility in the knowledge that ultimately the suffering person is not in complete control of their ultimate destiny. Through this humbling moment the person has a chance to let go of their own pride and surrender themselves to the “Supreme Good” who alone could offer a redemptive value to their painful experience. Here are some excerpts from St. Paul of the Cross’ correspondence on this subject.

…The Sovereign, Infinite Good has drawn you to the state in which you find yourself, that is, to a naked suffering and a satisfaction in being deprived of joy, to a love stripped of happiness, so that your soul, utterly deprived of satisfaction, places its satisfaction in uniting itself to the Good Pleasure of the great Heavenly Father, who is the satisfaction of our satisfactions. -1743

Truly these little sufferings both of body and soul are the first steps of that high and holy ladder by which great and generous souls ascend. Step by step they climb to the top where they find pure suffering, devoid of consolation either in heaven or on earth. If they are faithful in not seeking comfort from creatures, then from this pure suffering they arrive at the pure unadulterated love of God. - 1736

In these quotes St. Paul of the Cross indicates that suffering, whether physical, emotional or spiritual, can guide us towards a fulfilling life where we submit to the author of creation. Having emptied ourselves of our own need to control and define who we are we would then be filled with a great mystical sense of love and unity. This journey however is painful on many levels, especially in that ultimately we must let go of everything we hold dear (family, social standing, materiel goods, security etc.)

Although we don’t know how this message or consolation was received by those who where spiritually directed by St. Paul of the Cross the testament of his ever increasing correspondence and mystical fame towards the end of his life suggests that this healing message was well received. In today’s day and age it does not seem like people will be as receptive to this message. We live in a very ego-centric society and its appreciation towards elements of mysticism and the patience that it demands seem out of the social norm. Not to mention that the very idea of letting go has become counter cultural.

Yet contemporary writers remind us that this message is all the more needed today because it offers meaning to the very element that dominates our reality but which we, because of our social values, choose to ignore. That element of course is suffering, an element that all humanity at one time or another faces. When we can value the meaning of our own suffering we begin to value the various sufferings that the rest of the human family undergoes. In the Catholic ministry of promoting social justice the Passionist spirituality of redemtive suffering lends itself as a critical lens for promoting authentic human development. That is because in our own journey with personal and social suffering we develop an ethic of compassion where we can relate with our suffering human family through our own empathic response to the suffering that they are undergoing.  Here are three contemporary perspectives that touch on this point.

The work to relieve suffering and to deliver people from it is critically important and receives full emphasis of Jesus. But it is not the primary. First live openly, live to receive and to give, live so that you do not have to identify yourself in terms of what you are and have and do over against others, live by sharing even the agonies of suffering. When the separative walls are removed, when we have learned to suffer with and to let our commitment to others be stronger than our fear of affliction, then we may give our help with love and not out of fear. Then the passion of Jesus shapes and guides our own existence.  -Dr. Arthur McGill, Human Suffering and the Passion of Christ 

“Is it at all possible to understand the desire for suffering and the yearning for even more suffering? I think that it is possible only in conjunction with the other basic Christian concept, compassio (suffering with Christ and all who suffer). Mystical love for God makes us open to God’s absence: the senseless, spiritless suffering that separates humans from all that makes life. The privation and eclipse of God ought at least to be felt and suffered. The nausea caused by this world of injustice and violence ought at least to be perceptible; it ought to increase to the point of physical vomiting, as it is told about Catherine of Siena to Simone Weil. That kind of nausea is an experience of compassio. John of the Cross says that “the suffering for the neighbor grows the more the soul unites itself through love with God.” - Dorothee Soelle, The Silent Cry 

The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and for society. A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through “com-passion” is a cruel and inhuman society.

… The Christian faith has shown us that truth, justice and love are not simply ideals, but enormously weighty realities. It has shown us that God —Truth and Love in person—desired to suffer for us and with us. Bernard of Clairvaux coined the marvellous expression: Impassibilis est Deus, sed non incompassibilis —God cannot suffer, but he can suffer with. Man is worth so much to God that he himself became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way—in flesh and blood—as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus’s Passion. Hence in all human suffering we are joined by one who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio is present in all suffering, the consolation of God’s compassionate love—and so the star of hope rises.  - Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi

Considering these reflections and the Passionist spirituality how do this help us in quest for finding meaning in the suffering of the human community?

Based on this one could legitimately ask, “What can the Passionist contribute to the social issues of our time separate from what the universal Church already proclaims?”

The Passionist, like so many other religious communities of the Church, contributes to the social teachings of our Church in two ways. On the one hand we have a specific spiritual perspective that is based on the charism that we have from our founder. This lens can often offer us a deeper perspective on any social issue in that it places the issue within the specific Christian spirituality that is the hallmark of our community. In the case of the Passionist community we reflect on issues from the perspective of Christ’s suffering and Passion. The Passionist Constitutions explain this spiritual perspective in this way:

We are aware that the Passion of Christ continues in this world until He comes in glory; therefore we share in the joys and sorrows of our contemporaries as we journey through life toward our Father. We wish to share in the distress of all, especially those who are poor and neglected; we seek to offer them comfort and to relieve the burden of their sorrow. The power of the Cross, which is the wisdom of God, gives us strength to discern and remove the causes of human suffering.   

Our spirituality looks at social issues from the perspective of redemptive suffering. Our devotion to the Passion constantly reminds us that the social Passion that Jesus suffered was not in vain. Coupled with the Resurrection we know that through the power of God the suffering of humanity can be redeemed if we journey with God and place all our suffering within the framework of establishing the Kingdom of God. Through the mystery of incarnation Jesus took on our suffering. Obviously we know that does not mean that suffering has been eliminated. Instead it means that God continues to walk with us in our suffering. This has been recently expressed by Pope Benedict XVI 2007 encyclical titled Spe Salvi:

Man is worth so much to God that he himself became man in order to suffer with man in an utterly real way—in flesh and blood—as is revealed to us in the account of Jesus’s Passion. Hence in all human suffering we are joined by one who experiences and carries that suffering with us; hence con-solatio is present in all suffering, the consolation of God’s compassionate love—and so the star of hope rises.      

Our spiritual focus then is to examine all social issues from the vantage point of redemptive suffering. We identify with the very real suffering that is happening. We then reflect on how we can find meaning in the midst of this real experience of suffering. This search for meaning will call us to reevaluate the national and global policies that are affecting the suffering community that we are walking with. We then advocate redeeming society from these negative social or economic policies in a way that can heal the social wounds that they are directly or indirectly causing.   

The second way that the Passionist contributes to the Catholic social position is through our direct ministries of service. We are called to be in solidarity with the human community that is suffering. That call to solidarity means that we are expected to have a real ministry of presence and service to the community that is suffering. Since suffering can be experienced in so many different ways, our lay and vowed community can serve this mission through any variety of programs. When we advocate and promote social positions of our Church it is important for us that we do not raise these principles and positions from a theoretical framework. So we raise the real ministry experience of our international community who serves the population whose suffering we are addressing at the moment.

In the next few weeks we will be sharing our spirituality and ministerial experiences over the issue of immigration. Afterwards we will continue addressing other Catholic social issues but always from these two ways. We will share from the spiritual reflection of our charism and from the ministry experience of our communities.

Passionist spirituality has reflected on this question from the lens of our own Charism that is devoted to the memory of Christ Crucified. We see the Passion of Christ as a redemptive moment for all humanity. This moment suffering and death was a gift of God’s love to us all. It was a moment where God, through Jesus, took on our own suffering, injustice and pain. God’s incarnation with humanity was complete as it touched on all aspects of our humanity including our moments of suffering, despair and death. But even with this theology we continue to witness unimaginable suffering where we wonder what redeeming purpose could possibly come out of it.      

With this topic I would like to offer the Book of Job as a suggestion for theological reflection. This was exactly the question that the Jewish community faced with the Babylonian captivity because until then they thought that God’s action were always good and just (from their own perspective of what is good and just) and where equally confused about the actions of God when this cataclysmic event took place in their own time. The Temple was destroyed, many had been killed and executed including the entire royal family, and the remnant where exiled to Babylon where they thought they would perish. Out of this comes the Book of Job. In this Book the Israelites rework a new theology about how God can function in a way we can appreciate when evil events indiscriminately are allowed to happen. Job asks the question: “We accept good things from God; and should we not accept evil?”

In this book Job ultimately breaks down and becomes angry with God. Many of us can feel this anger with God right now. In Chapter 38 God responds back to Job by humbling Job back into his place within creation:

“Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance? Gird up your loins now like a man: I will question you, and you tell me the answers! Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its size; do you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it? Into what were its pedestals sunk, And who laid the cornerstone?”

This may strike us as harsh but basically God is telling Job and reminding us all that we cannot measure the greater good and evil from our own narrow vantage point. The evil that Job faced, the evil that Israel faced and the evil that Haiti faces today has some purpose. We cannot imagine what purpose could possibly justify such an action but since we are not the authors of Creation (as God reminds Job) then we are to relegate this into the realm of faith.

As Lord Alfred Tennyson had said: “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.”

In the principles of Catholic social teaching we are taught about the common good in this way. We are taught that God alone is good (Luke 18:19) and of course God is the sole author of all creation. The good we seek as Catholics is not our own good but the common good that “embraces the sum total of all those conditions of social life which enable individuals, families, and organizations to achieve complete an effective fulfillment.” (Mater et Magistra #74) Whatever universal good can possibly come out of this event God alone only knows, but we are left with doing what we can to build the common good in a place and with a people that have been absolutely devastated. The earthquake took place, and we are powerless to control what has already taken place. The issue for us is not to dwell on this but to act. We must act to promote the good to our Haitian brothers and sisters who are currently suffering from so much evil.