This is a section from An Angel of the Beatitudes titled, Joy and Pain are One.
Joy and Pain are One
[T]here the greater shall be our joy, the more we have suffered here below.
—Pope St. Gregory[1]
I once read that the wells of pain and joy within us are not separate. With that in mind; the greater your pain, the greater is your ability to be joyful. This all has to mean something. Maybe not for me but for good. Without the Pascal Mystery, this is a meaningless tragedy full of pain. Jesus told us that He is the way and He went to the cross and suffered. But death did not have the last word; He rose from the dead in His body and defeated death for us. He did not defeat suffering. He did not spare any of His loved ones from suffering. Either He enjoys suffering or it has value. It expands you and hopefully does greater good than the pain it causes.
I do believe that suffering expands your very being. With that said, suffering also expands your capacity for joy, as well as, your capacity for love and intimacy. I think that heaven will be sweeter for me and others that suffer greatly because your being is expanded.
In the depths of suffering, feel-good religion falls terribly short. I cannot find peace and comfort from “feel-good” religion. That is wonderful when life is going well, but when you are at the foot of the cross, something deeper is needed. Religion must offer purpose for the pain and the ability to transform your pain. Existentially, life is meaningless when pain enters, and pain is an inevitable part of the human experience. A priest in a concentration camp said, “Only the suffering God can help”[2]. Indeed, God the Son transformed suffering and gave it value so our suffering is not in vain. “[It was the] love of a suffering God that saved the world.”[3]
“All human suffering holds within it a promise of salvation and joy. As Paul has shared in the suffering of Christ, so he is also given a share in Christ’s joy. This joy is the fruit of self-sacrificing love, a love so infinite that it has the power to overcome evil. It is the joy of a transcendental purpose that has the capacity to transform our earthly suffering from simple resignation or grim endurance into a reason for peace and hope in the glory of eternity.”[4]
Behind my veil of sadness is a Christian Hope. “The paradox of the Christian condition which sheds particular light on that of the human condition: neither trials nor sufferings have been eliminated from this world, but they take on a new meaning in the certainty of sharing in the redemption wrought by the Lord and of sharing in His glory. This is why the Christian, though subject to the difficulties of human life, is not reduced to groping for the way; nor does he see in death the end of his hopes.”[5]
Darkness allows the illumination of light. The deeper the darkness, the brighter the light. “Joy is the result of a human-divine communion, and aspires to a communion ever more universal.” My heart, as the mother of a child with God, is oriented toward the supernatural. “We think of the world of the suffering; we think of all those who have reached the evening of their lives. God’s joy is knocking at the door of their physical and moral sufferings, not indeed with irony, but to achieve therein His paradoxical work of transfiguration.”[6]
God told Eve, after Original Sin, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.”[7]
Genesis is so rich with the “Theology of the Body”[8] and it seems that Genesis 3:16 may show us something about the mercy of God and how He uses evil for good. He uses consequences as a gift to offer something greater. He made childbirth painful and severe, but love comes to life in the process and the child is also a blessing. This consequence of Original Sin is a woman’s greatest blessing. The birthing process is painful. Giving birth requires an expansion of the person. The dilation of the birth canal happens paradoxically through a tightening, a contraction. It seems counterintuitive that through tightening comes expansion, but this seems to be an insight into the Divine Pattern. The Divine Pattern seems to utilize consequences as a means to offer us something greater. The Divine Patten shows that God works in a way that appears so counterintuitive. “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”[9]
Our suffering enlarges us and it expands our capacity. It seems this expansion will follow you into eternity because the very being of the person is enlarged. The enlargement dilatasti (Dilatasti: Latin, enlarge) is always a painful process, but the result is much greater than the pain. Giving birth displays that through pain, love comes to life, the child. The suffering of childbirth results in a tremendous blessing of the child. It is a gift. Suffering enlarges you and it produces a larger capacity for eternity. One that suffers enjoys an even greater bliss in heaven. We are all limited by our capacity and we are only able to experience what is within our own limits. God answers our call from our distress. “When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me: when I was in distress he enlarged me” (Vulg Pss. 4:2).[10]
This is beautiful and offers comfort to realize that suffering in never in vain. The consequence of sin is suffering and death. Jesus conquered death; however, we must go through death to enter eternal life. Death is redeemed, but we still must experience it. What we tend to forget is that suffering too is redeemed. Suffering is used, just as death is used to extrapolate a much greater good. In life, all the wonderful, along with all the terrible and ultimately even death itself is a gift from God.
My Christian joy is derived from Love and I am able to enjoy my other children and my present life. I continue to enjoy Angel, and I look forward to when we are “all in all”[11]. My grief does not rob me of joy. In fact, my very being is expanded, and the joy I feel is more deeply felt because it is a beautiful reprieve from my suffering. Joy and pain are not mutually exclusive, as an emotion, they are one in each of us.
[1] Pope Saint Gregory. “A Journey to the Catholic Church.” Last modified March 24, 2016. http://chnetwork.org/story/a-journey-to-the-catholic-church/
[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. “AZ Quotes.” Accessed November 23, 2016. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
[4] Pope John Paul II, “Salvifici Doloris.” Last modified February 11, 1984. https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris.html
[5] Pope Paul VI. 1975. “Gaudete in Domino.” Last modified May 9, 1975. http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19750509_gaudete-in-domino.html
[8] “What is the Theology of the Body?” Theology of the Body, accessed May 31, 2017, http://www.theologyofthebody.net/
[11] 1 Cor. 15:28 New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition.
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