October 25, 2009
"God hides at times only to make the joy of personal discovery possible for us." .
The human being is struggling till today in the process of discovering answers to two important realities namely suffering and death. Never have we been able, to find a satisfactory answer. Can we ever understand this mystery?Even this may look like another sermon to many. But i wish to express this.
How can the Almighty allow so many innocents to suffer? Why is God so mute to the prayer of his suffering people? Is God really the cause of evil? Why did the earthquake strike a mosque in Gujarat when people where gathered for prayer? Why did Tsunami devastate the lives of the simple fisherfolk who relied on the sea for their livelihood? Can we accept it as the will of God? How can a mother accept her first born to be handicapped or die at birth?
Aren’t these questions disturbing YOU and ME?
In today’s modern world anxiety is increasing every year. The more the modern world accentuates accomplishments, success, and competition, the greater is the suffering of those who think they are not allowed to come up in life. Most traditions look at suffering as a primary foe. Orientals seek a therapeutic answer to suffering (how to remedy it). Accidental’s see it as a metaphysical question (who or what causes it). For a Yogi finding god is finding freedom and avoiding suffering. Suffering has been a mystery to all over the ages.
Suffering and prayer is not without purpose. For a farmer, pain and labour is a must to reap a rich harvest. For parents, bringing up their children is painful. For a student studying for the exams at the last moment is difficult. Even a lover has to bear with his beloved till the relationship gets rooted. Husband and wife have to accept each other’s feelings. A poor man is forced to look for food and shelter from the rich. The mother has to take extra care for her handicapped child. Ultimately what we are and how our life goes is the result of a series of choices and preferences we make between what is of value and what is not.
Suffering cannot be easily defined, nor can it be easily answered. It is a mystery. It can be best described as a puzzle whose separate pieces, meaningless in themselves begin to form an image only when put together.
SUFFERING SPEAKS...
Everyone wishes to overcome pain and suffering. All seek to be happy and joyful. At times faith lessens pain. Even the tallest of houses looks small when flanked by a skyscraper. Buddha spoke of attaining nirvana, when pain and passion can no longer be felt. A well known zoologist R. Ardey says “Humans are basically language-speaking, pleasure-seeking beings confronted with the problem of suffering and death.” Concern for suffering is not new, either in social history or in the tradition of any religion. Society has worried over its catastrophes, the acts of God as well as its isolated thoughts.
“The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt,” says Thomas Merton. Society seems to be at a stage, where people move about like nervous actors, acting with stage-fright, simply afraid of failing in their roles. Thomas Kempis was right when he said “Suffering transcends human judgment and no study or decision can express the judgment.”
Only a lover knows the pain involved in committing to his/her beloved. People need each other to live, suffer and even their pain is unique and personal. Pain is bearable only when people see meaning of it when confronted.
For most people this is a difficult subject to speak on. But I have begun to understand its importance in life after my two important experiences that made me emotionally stronger and I wish to share its worth with many more people.
There is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for our dream than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for. I have learnt that suffering though does not seem acceptable at its peak hour; it makes meaning after our encounter with it.
In my life painful experiences have come as the flashing of thunder making me upset twice. One of them was, when I was in the first year of my training. One day I was punished badly for coming late. I felt really insulted before others. I had been to the hairdresser that day which got delayed because of the number of customers. That day I had almost made up my mind to leave the Congregation. But during my Annual retreat a year later, I began to realize and accept that it made me realize the cost of being responsible for the future. I still remember the words of a priest who helped me at that time of crisis, “God always wishes to bring good out of every bad experience or encounter we encounter which really inspires me even today to accept suffering. It strengthened me for my future. This may sound spiritual but has given me grace to face difficulties till today.
The second one was when I lost my elder brother Br. Loy Fernandes to an unexpected tragedy on 18th August 2006 in the Bay of Bengal waters. He was a Jesuit scholastic studying philosophy in Chennai. It came as a great shock to many who saw and met him. He had been to the sea shore for a dip after the hectic exams. He was a promising young man aspiring to go to Nagaland. When I heard the news, I never believed it at first, because I thought God may save him somehow through the help of some good person out in the sea just as I had seen in movies. But to loose someone close to me at the tender age of 24 was never easy neither for me nor for my family. My father’s faith and calmness taught me great lessons. How can one accept such a tragedy? How can one be a consoler to the family which has offered their son for God’s service? Why does God want a young man too soon for himself? That day my eyes were opened. I realized for the first time that it does not matter how long you live but how you live.
When Tsunami struck the coasts of South India, I got an opportunity to go for the relief work and to be with the victims for whom it was an unexpected tragedy of suffering. I stayed with them and helped them to get back to life, but found unable to console them for I could not answer their questions. It was there, that I realized that suffering is beyond human understanding. It can be understood only when accepted as a passing moment of life’s cycle. The experiences of various people shook my faith and made me reflect on the meaning of suffering. That day I had decided to pray for the people who have no one to pray for.
Conclusion:
Suffering is like the chisel that brings out the hidden art in a statue. A Rabbi once said, “When bad things happen we should not attend to it with theology but with sympathy. When suffering strikes all theories collapse.
Acceptance of suffering as a passing moment is a better way though it weakens and embitters us as persons. Suffering never leaves anything as before. No one remains the same after an encounter. A new chapter is written in one’s life.
Many have never known true happiness but then there is nobody who has never been confronted by some misfortune. Suffering never works as a automatic electric switch that can cast light when put on. It is a journey of discovery. Ultimately we are the meaning-givers. It is left to us whether we wish to be chiseled for a better life witness. I can't speak much...
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