VALUE OF SUFFERING, Hmmm

There was an interesting thought that crept into my consciousness today.  I read that some one on a religious Internet site asked the question, "Is it right to ask God to cure my suffering?"  You have to admit that this is not your ordinary cute little challenging question such as makes the rounds on the Internet now and then.  You know the kind of question I mean.  The famous question about why we "get into an automobile but get on a bus."  No.  This is not a George Carlin question.  This is a real one coming from a spiritually alert person.   Not that I am saying that Carlin was not a spiritually alert person.   The reason why the question intrigues me is that if I were suffering I would not be shy about turning to God and asking Him to get me out of the situation.  This is a question that could only come from a Christian, more than likely a Catholic one at that.  But is is intriguing.  Why would anyone think that suffering is a morally proper state to live in?  Just what could a suffering person accomplish for self and for others?  I do have some ideas that I will put on the table after I make a couple of short points.
~Suffering is not synonymous with pain.  EFR Dion lived for some 40 years with daily pain.  He led a fruitful life.  I saw him suffer for one whole year, one time, but not from what was causing him the pain.  He had Rheumatic fever and it was excruciating.  Not from the pain, but from the forced inactivity.
~I have a very exciting and fiery case of gout.  Since the age of  thirty-two I have endured this painful condition. I've never missed a day's work because of it.  I have it in just about every joint known to man and woman, and I suppose, God too.  Two years ago I was flat on my glutei maximi for a couple of months.  True, for a while the pain was "killing" me.  I was suffering from the situation.  I want you all to know that I prayed that I would walk through that valley and get high enough up on the sunny side of the hill to see something toward the future.  I did.
I think that the big difference between pain and suffering is that suffering is communitarian.  It affects the whole environment.  The pain of suffering is not necessarily physical.  In some cases it attacks your wallet more than your body.  In many cases it affects your identity as it relates to your place in the world.  I was in a wheel chair for about ten or twelve weeks and I have to say that I would have swapped an extra dose of bodily pain for freedom from that Satanical instrument of torture.

Let me give you a humorous example.  Take the lad in the picture.  What he is doing is more than likely not too comfortable.  I think that there are many who could get used to the occasional visit to a bed of nails.  That would be pain.  The suffering starts when that is the only place that you have to live.  You live on top of it and store your "treasures" underneath.  Now, you and I would perhaps agree that that would be suffering.  We would perhaps also agree that it would be difficult to define a value in such a situation.  
As much as I think that it would be perfectly permissible to pray to get out of suffering in general, I have one final comment, about which we may or may not fall into accord.  The value of suffering lies in the fact that it can be offered for the good of others.  The people who care for the suffering benefit from the love that they share with the patient.  Even if, and sometimes, especially if,  he/she is an impatient, cranky, patient.  Secondly, how about the good example that the patient patient provides to the community.  We have all heard it, "That poor thing is in a bad way but you never hear a complaint."  The lesson of quiet suffering is a precious one indeed.  Let me give you a powerful example.  
The Japanese cataclysmic nuclear disaster [Fukushima] caused and is causing monumental human suffering.  Look at the pictures.  People helping one another.  All of them suffering.  All of them supportive.  Seeing that attracts peoples from around the world to offer help.  The fiercely proud Japanese person learns that suffering can be healed by a strange helping hand and heart.  Come closer to home and think of what happens when disaster strikes here.  No matter how deep and vicious the suffering, it gets calmed by the generous human interaction that it invites.  
Finally, suffering is good because it teaches the one who goes through it and comes out the other side to pitch in and try harder to be a more valuable member of the community.  In my case, this part was done for me.  The Voice from the Kitchen promised God that if He got me through it, she and I would offer the rest of our lives working for Him.  Now you know why I don't want anybody crying at my funeral.


Catholics and other Christians are invited to click here for the Religious version of this post.