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“Why Me, Lord?”
I have asked this question of God so many times when things just don’t go right. There are moments when everything seems in place, and I lift it up in a prayer of thanksgiving, but then things fall apart. Or there are times when I have complete faith that God will work things out, but nothing happens. At such times, one feeling overwhelms me – ANGER. I can’t understand why God would allow this to happen or why He would let me fall and fail. Why would God want me to SUFFER…?
As I stand in front of Him with a million question marks in my head, He simply tells me that suffering is important. However, this only adds to the confusion, and I fail to understand how suffering can be good or fit into God’s plan.
Then, I decided to stop searching for answers and surrendered, saying, “Lord, let Your will be done.” Through this surrender, I realized that suffering is truly significant. Suffering evokes three human responses: compassion, admiration, and fear. Suffering, with all its evil and awful aspects, can be seen as an experience from which good can be achieved. The opportunity to suffer is like an opportunity to be more like Christ and to live for Christ’s sake.
If we all desire to be a part of Christ’s salvation and reach heaven someday, then it is necessary that we suffer, for we have to share in Christ’s suffering to attain salvation. In our weakness, we are more likely to trust in Christ because we realize that our accomplishments are not solely our own doing, but the grace of Christ working in us. Moreover, it is in our weakness and suffering that we grow in humility and cannot boast about our achievements. St. Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 1:9 offer us profound strength in times of suffering: ‘Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.’
The cross often reminds us of the death and suffering of our God, but I now understand that the cross is a sign of life. Suffering itself gives life. Our suffering, united with the suffering of Jesus, can help us transform the whole world. And so, I stopped claiming healing for my pain and ceased questioning God about my suffering. I don’t know how these things work, and if you were to ask me how I am sure about it, I wouldn’t have an answer. But then again, I am not that smart to comprehend God and all His ways. If I were, I would be with Him right now.
Let us trust God in whatever situation we are in, and let’s pray for each other so that we may have the strength to carry the cross we are blessed with. Suffering is our opportunity to journey through the garden of Gethsemane to the Mount Calvary, and it does not end there. Suffering ends with the rolled stone next to the empty tomb.
Christian families are missionary families, in their everyday life, in their doing everyday things, as they bring to everything the salt and the leaven of faith!
Pope Francis 