Pain, Sorrow and Christianity/ Reflexion - Letters to my Dear Siblings

We live in a society that teaches us to avoid pain and suffering at all costs. Some people even use it as an argument for abortion and euthanasia.

Poor thing is already suffering a lot, we must \”help him to die\”. Poor baby is going to have a horrible life full of suffering \”you have to abort it.\” (kill him and not giving him any chance). Naturally we want to avoid suffering and help others, but we well know that the above is not justified.

Neither we, nor God, wants to see anyone suffer, so much so that Christians are the pioneers in all kinds of charities throughout the world and in various ways of helping others. Schools, hospitals, orphanages, shelters, dining rooms, etc. But let\’s be honest, pain and suffering are part of this life. I do not know a single person who has experienced not trauma in any way, or who has not felt any kind of pain, or who has not suffered in any way. Both pain and suffering help us grow as human beings (something that is extremely important and that would not take place without them) and to appreciate the good things in life.

For us Christians pain is a form of purification of our soul, it helps us to pay for our sins. While it is not about being masochistic, there are times when we cannot avoid either pain or suffering, or even unpleasant feelings like anger and sadness. In my journey in this life, I have learned that a very positive way of dealing with those negative emotions is that instead of staying with those feelings, we can turn the situation in our favor and offer that suffering or those emotions to God. We can use them for the forgiveness of our sins or for someone else. For example for the conversion of the people around us or those who we consider to be in need.

Every time someone hurts me or I have a problem with someone, I offer God all the pain or discomfort that the situation has caused me, and ask him to use it for the needs of the person who hurt me and to help me to heal those wounds. The point is to make our suffering have some sense of meaning and not to be in vain.

Another example is in the case of the dying. There is a tendency to avoid pain at all costs and it is not wrong to use medications to mitigate them, however euthanasia is never justified. We have the anointing of the sick, a sacrament in which the Holy Spirit intervenes and 2 things happen: Either the sick recovers and improves quickly or dies quickly, whatever the will of God is. (1,2) That is why euthanasia is unnecessary. However, in this case, pain has a reason for being, the purification of our soul and the forgiveness of sins. In the event that our destiny is purgatory, we could avoid it or at least reduce that time using and offering suffering for the repair of our sins.

For example, the children of the Virgin Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta. Both very good and pious children who learned to pray the rosary and understood the existence of heaven, purgatory and hell thanks to the Virgin Mary. They asked her to take them with her to Heaven. The Virgin promised them that she would do so, with the exception of Lucia who had to stay to make the message known. The children were very good and prayed the rosary and offered much penance, fasting and sacrifices for the forgiveness of the sins of the world. Both died, victims of the Spanish flu, each at a different time and suffering agony for months, of which they did not complain, with great serenity. I did not understand how children so close to the Virgin Mary and God went through such a death. Jacinta died alone, I am not sure of Francisco. One day I understood that we human beings are impure for the simple fact of being human. \”Nothing impure will ever enter the kingdom of Heaven.\” God allowed this suffering to the children for their purification and through it, the Virgin could fulfill her promise and take them to Heaven as she had said. I know they are children, but even so they are not exempt, much more all of us.(3,4)

We can also offer God our joys, because suffering is not the only thing, but it is the most purifying.

Well, they can tell me, but what do you know about suffering? Have you had cancer? Have you lived through a war? Someone from your family died? As I said previously we have all suffered in this life, however I understand that there are those who have had much, much worse than others. To know how to face suffering without losing our faith, we can take the martyrs as an example. They are martyrs because they decided to give their lives in the defense of the faith and truth, for something much bigger without caring about suffering. And no, it is not that they did not suffer, but their mission is greater than that. We have several examples such as Saint Stephen, in the new testament, who was stoned to death and forgave his attackers before dying. All the apostles and many others, like most recently our Mexican cristeros.

In the Bible, the book by reference is the book of

Job

in the Old Testament, from whom everything was taken, his property and wealth, his loved ones and his health. Despite that, he never lost faith, blamed God, or stopped being thankful to Him.

The central character of this Book came to discover the face of the true God through suffering. For this he had to give up his own wisdom and his claim to consider himself fair. The path that the Christian must follow is no other, but this is illuminated by the message of the cross, which gives a totally new meaning to the mystery of human pain. \”For now I rejoice in my passion on your behalf, and I complete in my flesh the things that are lacking in the Passion of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the Church.\” (Col. 1,24). \”^{For I consider that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with that future glory which shall be revealed in us.}.\” (Rom. 8. 18).