On Suffering
Suffering is a reality in every person’s life. Fr. Shane Gallagher reflects on suffering in his own life, what he has learned from suffering and how we can connect with God in our suffering.
By Fr. Shane Gallagher
Funeral of Christian martyrs in Damascus Syria. (Credit: Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate)
Three and a half years ago I was taken into a small room by a hospital consultant in Beaumont Hospital and I was bluntly told that my mother had an incurable brain tumour. Mum’s time on this earth was short. It was a moment that I never had imagined would happen. I was in complete shock knowing that the woman who had given me life was now dying. I have often heard it said that the mother is the bedrock of any family home. My mother was the heartbeat of our family existence. She was a woman of deep prayer, steadfast in her faith journey and her closeness to God made me question her illness and passing. Mum left this world a few weeks later in May 2017. In the months that followed grief took different forms from getting suddenly tearful in the middle of a supermarket to panic attacks at 4am in the morning when I would wake up unable to breathe. An engraved black marble tombstone with Mum’s name at times brings me back to her final days of life.
Three and a half years later I can honestly say that I am none the wiser regarding my pain. I do not claim to have a monopoly on suffering. I would also like to add that suffering has not impinged hugely on my life but when it did it certainly forced me to reflect on it. When it was suggested to me that I might like to pen an article on suffering, I immediately started to reflect on the loss of my mother. The Greek poet Aeschylus once wrote the following; “Wisdom comes through suffering”. The truth is that everyone in this broken world suffers at one point in time or another. Suffering does not respect any boundary or human background from a billionaire to a beggar. Suffering comes in many forms from physical to mental to spiritual and so on...Poets have lamented about suffering and those who have suffered have retold their stories time and again. It visits the faithful and the faithless alike. So, if we are to take Aeschylus’ words seriously, what wisdom or learning can we draw from suffering in 2020?
Bust of the 5th century BC Greek poet and playwright Aeschylus. (Open source)
I was ordained a priest in 2008 partly due to the influence of one man-St. Pope John Paul II. This was a man who was acquainted with grief and suffering for much of his life and as I thought about his suffering moments my own experiences paled in comparison. He had lost his mother, father and brother all early in his life at critical moments when he needed their presence. He was nearly killed by a passing truck at one point. He lost friends in the Second World War and to make matters worse he had to live through the restrictive Communist regime in Poland for many years where basic human and religious freedoms were denied. Yet through all of this he remained strong. In later life he would suffer with Parkinson’s disease. The image of the ailing Pope in 2005 waving to the crowds unable to speak in his final days was a message to every Catholic that they should never give up until their dying breath. In his Apostolic Letter entitled Salvifici Doloris published in 1984 the Pope makes over thirty reflections on suffering and this is a letter worth reading if we would like to know more about suffering. The late Pope poses the questions “Why do we suffer?” and “Why is there evil?” Man endures difficulty and wonders why. He suffers when he cannot come up with an answer.
Evil blinds us from seeing God to the point where we think like atheists “an almighty and benevolent God wouldn’t allow this to happen, thus God is either not almighty or not good, which means He’s not God.” This is a common reaction when we cannot explain suffering. The Pope explains that Christ was always close to the suffering, the sick and the broken hearted during his messianic journeys between the towns and villages whilst on earth. The Pope alludes to the Prophet Isaiah in Chapter 53 where the suffering servant comes voluntarily and suffers out of love for God. The Son places his fate into His Father’s hands. The Pope is showing us what we have to do when we suffer. We are called to be submissive to the Will of the Father as Christ was.
Suffering came through the death of Jesus on Calvary and the pain He endured. Our redemption is linked to Calvary and our suffering will bring about our redemption. St. Pope John Paul II in this document changed my outlook on suffering. He said that suffering brings out the best in all human beings as it makes us more charitable, responsive, sacrificial and grateful for our blessings. It is a most positive document that cannot be fully explained in a single article but nonetheless gives a great perspective on the topic of suffering through a Catholic faith lens.
As a priest I often get requests for prayer particularly for those who are suffering in various ways. My response is quite simple as I offer up their intentions through my prayers in the breviary and also through the Holy Rosary particularly through the Sorrowful Mysteries where we are invited to meditate on the suffering of Jesus. Sr. Lucia Dos Santos one of the children of Fatima once stated; “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” I have encountered people from various backgrounds in life who have suffered in many ways over the years and many of them will talk about the peace that the Rosary bestows.
A protester against government repression in Belarus. (Credit: Witalij Poliniewski)
The fear of future suffering is extinguished by the first Sorrowful Mystery where we reflect on Jesus anticipation of suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. The soreness of physical wounds can be offered to God in the second mystery “The Scourging of Jesus at the Pillar”. The mental exhaustion caused by suffering on our minds and hearts are offered to God and His Blessed Mother in the Third Sorrowful Mystery-The Crowning with Thorns. I find it a very fruitful exercise by offering the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery-Jesus carries His Cross, for those who support the suffering such as family, friends, healthcare workers and so on. Finally the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery can be offered when all seems lost because it was at that moment when all did seem lost that Jesus by His Expiration triumphed over evil and opened the Gates of Heaven.
Those living in hopelessness should remain in our thoughts in this decade as should those at the end of life stage of an illness. The Holy Rosary instils in the soul a feeling that all is in the Hands of God and Our Blessed Mother and they will take care of our sufferings. It is a prayer of the heart and of the imagination as the believer is invited to journey with Jesus through the narrow streets of Jerusalem to the place called Golgotha. You are invited to gaze upon Jesus through the tear filled eyes of Our Lady of Sorrow. Your sufferings will ease as you meditate on the suffering of the Innocent One who like a lamb was put to the slaughter for our salvation.
Syriac Catholic procession in Iraq. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
As one who is a very strong proponent of prayer being said in all situations, I believe that prayer is the oxygen of our souls not just to be used in moments of suffering. Prayer is the language of hope according to St. Thomas Aquinas. In 2013 I went through personal difficulties in my own life and I was diagnosed with depression. It lasted six months. I decided to devote the first hour of every day to Eucharistic Adoration. I was determined to bring my brokenness directly to Jesus at 6am every morning. Within a short time my depression quickly disappeared.
My doctor asked me what I was doing differently. Other factors helped my cause but I have no doubt that it was time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that lifted me from the abyss. The daily Holy Hour is something that I have continued ever since. Prayer is the answer to everything. If you can spend time in Adoration or if you can use rosary beads, then you will learn to deal with suffering should it happen. I do not say “avoid suffering” but I say “deal with suffering” as it is at times unavoidable, a test of love and sometimes God’s way to get us on our knees.