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In discussing pain and suffering, we touch Crosswinds By William C. Van Breda There appears to be a paradox in Christian teaching, as C.S. Lewis observes, about the trials and tribulations of life.1 Poverty is praised and riches are to be frowned upon; nevertheless, social justice urges us to make the necessary efforts to eliminate poverty. It is also considered a blessing when persecution rages, but we can evade this affliction by going to some other place. If poverty and persecution for instance, are good things why are they not pursued rather than avoided? In his study, C.S. Lewis offers several discerning explanations which, however, do not expound the paradox in a really acceptable and definite manner. In discussing pain and suffering—let this be emphasized at the outset—we are not dealing with a difficult problem which can be solved by human reasoning and endeavor but we rather touch a profound mystery which is beyond our grasp and comprehension. Christian teaching holds that the mystery of sin and evil entails for us trials and troubles. The truly spiritual man, moreover, realizes that he, accepting in his life pain and suffering, is in a mysterious way taking part in the Passion and Death of Our Lord as he completes in the Mystical Body what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions (Col. 1:24). Christ’s Passion On the evening of his Resurrection, as St. Luke relates, the Lord joins as a fellow traveler two of his disciples on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. He enters in a gentle and amiable manner into their conversation about the events in Jerusalem of that past week. As he starts to interpret the Sacred Scriptures on the promised Savior, he illumines their minds and inflames their hearts. “Was it not necessary for Christ to enter upon his Passion?” (Luke 24:26). Christ’s Passion and Death are after the fall a necessity for man’s Redemption and Salvation. How true is indeed St. Paul’s exclamation that God’s judgments are unsearchable and his ways inscrutable (Rom. 11:33). Consequently, Christ crucified is a folly to the Gentiles (1 Cor. 1:18. 23). St. Thomas contemplating this unfathomable mystery and quoting St. Augustine (De Trinitate c.13), proclaims that Christ’s Passion and Death constitute the most suitable way to redeem mankind from sin and he offers at the same time five more arguments for this suitability.2 Many saints and spiritual authors hold, however, that a simple prayer from Our Lord would have sufficed to pardon man. St. Thomas teaches nevertheless that the Passion and Death of Our Lord were necessary, not, however, through a necessity of compulsion but rather through the necessity of the end as disposed by the Most Blessed Trinity. He quotes here, too, Christ’s words to the disciples of Emmaus.3 The crucified Lord remains a folly to the world in our era too. But without him man’s hopes and expectations lack the necessary supernatural dimension. We foster the ideal of universal fraternity, advance peace and attempt to eliminate poverty in the world: all very worthwhile endeavors. Man expects to solve all hardships and troubles through advanced scientific discoveries, especially in the field of medicine. All this makes attractive political programs, eagerly heralded and promoted by the modern media. With the unprecedented prosperity and affluence, however, which the Western World enjoyed in the post-war years, man actually experienced greater discontent and deeper misery than in the so-called years of depression and penury of the Thirties. As a matter of fact prosperity knits a man to the world.4 Without a genuine spiritual drift and a real religious orientation our human ideals remain elusive and our efforts are doomed to failure. Even the ancients had their lofty goals: Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento—hae sunt tibi artes—pacique imponere morem, parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.5 Man still carries his scar of the fall, i.e., his inclination to evil. Some have come to realize that true happiness is not to be attained in this world.6 Sin and evil demand and necessitate Christ’s Passion and Death and our suffering to restore man’s innocence. Sons of the Most High Dii estis et filii excelsi omnes: You are gods and sons of the Most High (Ps. 81:6). No man, naturally, is God. Yet the psalm calls us gods. We are gods, however, in that we are created in the image and likeness of the Most High, i.e., in that we have intelligence and free will. Through this divine design God’s Providence involves also our Redemption and Salvation. We are thus further initiated to the most opaque and unfathomable divine mysteries. It has been for the great theologians a mind-boggling and immense undertaking to attempt to reconcile God’s predestination—which appertains to his Providence —and man’s freedom. All human activity presupposes God’s causality.7 Under divine prompting man does something in a certain way, having the ability, however, to act in a different manner. God’s power is infinite and his Providence remains for man a dense impenetrable mystery. Divine predestination therefore will always be a matter of God’s goodness and of his holy Will, as some are predestined to Salvation and others reprobated.8 The words of St. James ought to be quoted here where he says “No one should say when tempted: I am tempted by God. . . .” God does not tempt anyone (Jas. 1:13). The door of God’s mercy “You knocked vigorously at the door of God’s Mercy” St. Augustine says to Evodius as they are discussing God’s predestination and man’s freedom.9 In his endeavors to probe these mysteries St. Augustine maintains that unhappy living is to be preferred over plain non-existence. Thus, fallen angels and fallen men are not doomed to non-existence but to hell eternal. Non-existence is thought to be worse than hell. The same idea is put forward by C.S. Lewis where he says that for those in hell there is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery. He mentions Milton who states that lost souls prefer rather to reign in hell than serve in Heaven.10 The Lord’s Passion and Death reveal the real ugliness of sin and God’s immeasurable love for man. Many saints therefore—e.g., St. Teresa of Avila, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure —believe that the excessive pains of the Passion of Our Lord manifest this unfathomable love for man. Thus, St. Francis de Sales could exclaim, “Tout est à l’amour, par l’amour et pour l’amour dans la Sainte Eglise.” God should have wiped us out and annihilated us as we are an unattractive and selfish lot. We are indeed rebels and vermin.11 God’s ways, however, are not our ways. God created the world, but when he came to visit, this world knew him not. His own people did not receive him (John 1:10. 11). And, as Scriptures relate, even St. Peter remained for a long while rather secular in his thinking (Matt. 16:24). Even after the Resurrection the Apostles were talking in a rather worldly political manner (Acts 1:6). Harbingers of the Kingdom As we attempt to get insight in the Christian paradox presented by C.S. Lewis, we need to perceive that God is the first agent and ultimate end of all creation.12 Christ’s miracles therefore reveal in first instance God’s glory (John 2:12), but they are also the harbingers of God’s Kingdom. These miracles therefore herald the coming of the Kingdom as the Lord heals the aches and relieves the discomfort of suffering man (Matt. 11:5; Luke 9:11). In imitation of the Lord, Christians therefore attempt to alleviate man’s hurt and grief, but they also embrace the Lord’s Passion when trial and pain inevitably present themselves. Not only does this become manifest through the miracles and the Passion of the Lord, but also, e.g., through the acts of the martyrs, where God’s glory appears through wondrous signs at the time of their trials preceding their execution and martyrdom. The confessions of many ancient martyrs are still extant in records of their court procedures.13 The miracles of the Lord, his Passion and Death, and the completing suffering of his Mystical Body offered to the Father as the atonement and propitiation for our sinfulness (Isa. 53:8; 1 Pet. 2:24; 1 John 2:2) make God’s kingdom appear and establish his reign in the world. The fourth word St. Alphonsus rightfully maintains that all Christians should become martyrs, either martyrs in blood or martyrs in patience (Matt. 10:38; Luke 14:27).14 There remains however one rather essential difference between the Lord’s Passion and his faithful’s martyrdom. What traditionally is considered the Fourth Word of Christ on his Cross: “My God , my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46) is never to be uttered by any of Christ’s followers taking up their cross. Whatever the interpretation of the Fourth Word, Christ never abandons his faithful in their need and agony. He will not leave us desolate orphans (John 14:18; Matt. 28:20). The Sacred Scriptures and the Sacred Tradition radiate the ineffable sacrifice of the Lord. We, therefore, need to lose ourselves in enthralled contemplation of the exulted mysteries of the violent Crosswinds of the Spirit of the Lord. Meditation on the Passion ought to be daily spiritual fare for every Christian. Christ’s obedience unto death (Phil. 2:8) alone brought our salvation and restored our innocence. God’s Will is to become our will.15 1 C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Macmillan, New York, 1962, p. 110. Reverend William C. Van Breda, O.S.A., was born in the Netherlands and also ordained to the priesthood there. He studied at the Institute Catholique in Paris, France. In 1954 he was sent to the United States. His assignments have included teaching the classics, parish apostolates and, in recent years, serving as a hospital chaplain. He has written on current theological and moral questions in publications in the United States and the Netherlands. His last article in HPR appeared in March 1997. |