Suffering

 

It’s been said that if you ask the wrong questions, you’ll get the wrong answers – not wrong in the sense of answering the faulty questions, but in the sense of addressing the situation you’re questioning. The truth of this old axiom can be clearly seen these days in the questions asked and the answers offered regarding human suffering and God’s power, or goodness, or love. “If God’s so loving, why did He let our grandchild die?” “If God’s so powerful, why didn’t He stop that terrorist attack (or whatever catastrophe)?” For many in our slogan-saturated society, these questions (and their implied answer: “He isn’t”) are the discussion-stoppers, the ace of trump thrown down in defiance to any claim of God’s love or goodness.

In his book Suffering – What Every Catholic Should Know, Mark Giszczak begins the discussion by straightening out the questions. “Questions” that are actually rationalizations, or expressions of pride, or whatever, don’t actually answer the universal human reality of suffering – they just paper over it, leaving those who cling to them still hurting with no solution. Drawing on Scripture, centuries of Christian devotional wisdom, and human experience, Giszczak begins by framing the right questions, then carefully and thoroughly answering them.

The keynote to the whole work is finding meaning in suffering. Even basic human experience tells us that suffering that has meaning is more bearable. From the athlete training for the big event to a wife who learns that her firefighter husband perished while ensuring some children were rescued, we instinctively grasp that it isn’t suffering per se that is difficult to bear, but senseless suffering. I remember this clearly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks: people were not so much angry or vengeful as they were stunned and bewildered. The attacks were incomprehensible, they made no sense. Why would anyone do such a thing? This touches on the deeper question of whether suffering can ever have any meaning, and this is Giszczak's point of departure.

From a scholar like Giszczak, you would expect well-reasoned and theologically sound answers, and he does not disappoint. What you might not expect is a realistic and sensitive treatment of the hard and often bitter reality of suffering, but he provides that as well. He does not offer abstract solutions to the knotty equation of human pain, but rather speaks from his own life experience and that of others. His examples are drawn from everyday life, things to which we can all relate. His advice is gentle and sympathetic, yet also challenging.

Another thing you might not expect from a book on suffering is assistance in deepening your devotion, but that’s exactly what I found. As I better understood how Jesus enters into our suffering, I found myself drawing closer to Him. I even found myself going to confession after reading about how poor responses to suffering can be nothing more than expressions of ego. Of course, this stands to reason – if the wrong questions and answers regarding suffering can hinder our devotion, the correct ones can aid it.

Atop all these virtues, the work is extremely accessible. Nearly anyone could read this book and benefit from it. To me, this has always been the mark of true genius: not the ability to explain a subtle concept to another genius, but to explain it to the school janitor. Giszczak manages this deftly.

Suffering doesn’t give glib, facile answers to the problem of human pain, because the topic cannot be answered that way. The reality of evil and the consequent suffering is far too complex and personal. The fact that God Himself came down in person to walk beside us, and indeed enter into our suffering, should amply indicate that the problem will admit no simple solutions. But that very fact is what provides meaning, even redemption, to our suffering. Mark Giszczak does a thorough and admirable job of explaining how to better grasp that truth.

https://ignatius.com/suffering-sfwckp/