Suffering

In many modern day philosophies, suffering is the ultimate evil, and freedom to do whatever you want is the ultimate good.

We are always hearing people give advice like “just do what makes you happy,” or people saying “it’s my life, I’ll live it how I want.”

But how does this selfish, me-first, mindset play out in reality?

• The hook up culture alienates men and women, turning them more into goods or services to be desired and used than human beings.
• Men have zero faithfulness to women so that if they ever get pregnant, they just get out of the picture.
• Why raise your child in poverty when you could abort and get rid of “the problem”?
• Many marriages are only measured in months, because they didn’t “sign up” for the hard times, too.
• If grandma/grandpa is really sick and probably going to die, it’s much less painful (and cheaper) to euthanize instead of paying to have them lay on a hospital bed for another year.
• If little Bobby in the hospital has an illness and can’t be cured, doctors can euthanize him, even as a child.
• Hard pornography is available everywhere as is prostitution, without anyone ever thinking about whether the women actually want to be doing what they are doing and sticking up for them.

When it comes down to it, it seems like our culture has no balls. Is anyone willing to stick up for what they believe in anymore? I mean really. We consistently take the easiest way out for EVERYTHING. If we ever have the option to make something in the law less burdensome for us morally, it’s bound to pass through. All in the name of “freedom” or “liberty” or “progress” or “happiness” or “painlessness.” Is this a strong culture? Is this the type of society that we should be proud to be from? Does this bring out the best in humanity, or does it lead individuals down a spiral of mediocrity and selfishness?

This is yet another reason why I love the Catholic Church so much. Is anyone else protesting the moral evils of our time as much as the Church? Has anyone else even had the balls to speak up against popular culture?

When it comes down to it, the idea of avoiding suffering at all costs isn’t even possible. Life doesn’t give us that “option” to control. Suffering is a part of life, and you better find a life philosophy that makes some sense out of it, or even gives you hope through it. We never know if we’ll take another breath, or what’s around the next bend in life.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been in agony. I got injured playing basketball, and my leg ended up swelling up from hematoma. Can’t walk. Can’t sleep. Constant pain. Sounds fun right?

It didn’t destroy me, though. As a human person, suffering is a way of life, and my Catholic Christian religion takes this into account. At every church that I ever go to, right there in the middle behind the altar is a crucifix, like this:

Seeing a crucifix reminds me of how God doesn’t just love me, but He loves me enough to be tortured and crucified for me. When I am in agony, I know that He is in agony with me too.

Jesus even desires that I offer up my sufferings for Him and for others. It is a great way to sanctify the difficulties of life.

As a Christian, I understand that life isn’t perfect, but at the end of time all things will be made right. I have heaven and the resurrection to look forward to (hopefully, pray for me!), so I really have nothing to lose in this life as long as I’m all in for Jesus.

I’ve found some joy in my sufferings in being able to offer it up for my family and friends, the students that I work with, the mission trip that I was going to go on, etc. It has also revealed how much love my friends have in helping me out by making me food, getting me water, helping me get around, and more. By serving me, they are serving Jesus in a sense through me. Remember the passage, in Matthew 25:

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” – Jesus

Those selfish philosophies? They have no way to explain how to deal with pain and struggle in life. “Just do what you want” doesn’t work when you’re in agony. You can’t will yourself to stop hurting. Instead, we have to toughen up and move on. Those philosophies also especially fall short when someone else is in need. As a Catholic Christian, I am called to serve those in need and love all. Just because a person or relationship isn’t convenient doesn’t mean that I should just drop them. We are faithful and loving within the bounds of the relationship.

I think I rambled a bit too much with this one. I’ll clarify my points to try and salvage it:

1. Philosophies that do not incorporate suffering and pain are insufficient
2. Doing whatever gives you pleasure in life is selfish, our culture needs to put more value on selfless love
3. There actually is hope and purpose in suffering especially for Christians because of our faith
4. God bless you, hope you’re having a great day 🙂