– Aurelio Porfiri
A few days ago someone said on television that suffering allows a growth of knowledge. I think there is a lot of truth in this statement, because in fact when we suffer we see things in a very different, deeper and therefore more essential perspective. Suffering is not only physical, there is also mental suffering which unfortunately is no less painful. When I reflect on all this, I cannot help but think of Saint John of God (1495-1550), a saint who the Church celebrates on the 8th of March, on a day when his memory is completely obscured by women’s day.
Juan Ciudad, the name of our John, was Portuguese. He had an adventurous life, even touched by what seemed to be mental disorders, which led him to a hospitalization that made him reflect on the suffering of others, on how this was considered and treated by those who were called to heal bodies. But the bodies are nothing without the soul and if this is not taken into proper consideration the body also suffers, does not heal or refuses to heal. Here John decided to give value to his life by dealing with suffering, how to alleviate illness and take care of man as an integral subject and not just from a materialistic point of view. He founded hospitals that were well organized to make the sick feel welcome, loved, understood.
Our John of God was fully converted to this new mission by listening to a sermon by Saint John of Avila (1500-1569), who said: “The only honor for the Church is to follow Christ inwardly and outwardly by despising the riches, luxury, pride and all the other faults that would make the stones cry out.” Here, this contempt was put in place by our John, who despite not having knowledge of medicine devoted himself body and soul to the construction of hospitals gathering around him some followers, the hospital friars, known by all as the “Fatebenefratelli” (“Do good, brothers”), from the sentence that John pronounced when he begged.
St John of Avila also affirmed: “We must dig into the mud of our nothingness to reach the land: God. Because the Lord on the cross has given us everything, we must love him to the point of madness and follow him on the cross.” John dug and after having dug so much, he found that madness (“scandal and madness and folly” is basically a Pauline concept that refers to how the world sees Christians) was in loving the cross, and the cross is suffering.
I hope you get my point. God does not like to see people suffer. What God would this be? A God who enjoys seeing his children suffer? No, God does not love suffering in itself, but loves those who suffer precisely because in their suffering they are mysteriously united to the Passion of his Son. Nobody loves fatigue, but without effort we do not get beautiful things in our lives. Here, suffering is like fatigue, we do not love it for itself but for what it can bring into our existence. Only great souls almost come to desire suffering, because they can completely sublimate it, like St Therese of Lisieux who said: “I wanted to suffer and I was heard. I have suffered a lot, for several days. One morning, during Thanksgiving, I felt like the anguishes of death, and with this there was no consolation! I accept everything for the love of God, even the extravagant thoughts that come to my mind and annoy me.”
Teresa herself gives an explanation of the value we must give to suffering: “If God gave us the whole universe with all its treasures, all this would not be comparable to the slightest suffering. What a grace when in the morning we do not feel a shred of courage, a shred of strength to practice virtue! Then it is time to put the ax at the root of the tree (Mt 3:10). Instead of wasting your time gathering some poor straw, let’s sink our hands into the diamonds!” Here it is, it has value because it unites us with that Passion from which our salvation came. And, let’s be clear, a religion that is credible cannot but hold in high esteem and offer a perspective on suffering, precisely because it affects all of us, no one excluded. No one escapes suffering.
The writer Curzio Malaparte said: “Death does not scare me: I do not hate it, it does not disgust me, it is not, in the end, what concerns me. But suffering I hate it, and more that of others, men or animals, than mine. I am willing to do anything, any cowardice, any heroism, in order not to make a human being suffer, just to help a man not to suffer, to die without pain.”
Well, even if in Malaparte’s aim there is a noble intention, that of alleviating suffering, there is also an error of perspective because he does not understand that suffering is often a preparation for death and for some even an expiation before judgment . The ability to offer suffering is a great thing, it is knowing how to say to oneself and to others that even in the moments when it seems we are about to lose ourselves, we are able to not leave the hand of God.
Of course, getting lost when you suffer is a real possibility. When one suffers, one does not sometimes feel the presence of God. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra observed: “There is a psalm that, I confess, every time I recite it always deeply moves me because at some point the psalmist: “And they tell me: where is your God?” The question that made the psalmist shed tears may be addressed today and by the skeptic or the desperate: “Where is your God?” (“But what is truth?” says Pilate).
“I find the answer in an admirable – again – page of St Augustine that I read and with which I conclude. In his commentary on this psalm, he wrote: ‘When men celebrate their feasts, they usually put some musical instruments in front of their houses, or hire players, in short, play some music. Those who pass by, on hearing it, will say it’s a party, they’ll say it’s a birthday party, or it’s a wedding party, so that those songs do not seem out of place.The feast is eternal in the house of the Lord, a feast that never ends, because the face of God gives a joy that never fails, and this feast day has neither beginning nor end: from that eternal and perpetual celebration resounds in the heart of man something that is always sweet and singing, the sound of that party caresses the ears of those who walk where God’s miracles are performed in the redemption of the faithful, in the Church.’ So St Augustine” (“The family and the challenges of today” 1991).
From this reflection of Cardinal Caffarra we can understand how the task of those who are close to the suffering is precisely that of making that “joy that never fails” resound. Give hope not only for the healing of the body, but above all for a full recovery, a healing of the whole man that allows us to always affirm how our spiritual dimension has a pre-eminence over the material one.
The little girl of Lourdes, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a young woman of no great culture, gave this explanation: “Why must we suffer? Because here, pure love does not exist without suffering.” Suffering purifies us, but it also gives us the sense of our fragility, which often preserves us from the excesses that would surely lead us to a life of greater debauchery and sin. It is to be tried as gold in the crucible. St Augustine in his speech number 15 said: “I think there, where gold is purified, not without reason there is straw. Let’s see everything there is: there is a furnace, there is straw, there is gold, there is fire, there is the artist. But those three things, that is, gold, straw, and fire are inside the furnace, the artist around the furnace. And now look at this world. The world is the furnace, the straw are the bad men, the gold the good men, the fire the tribulations, the artist God. Look carefully and see: the gold is not purified if the straw does not burn. Also in this same psalm, in which we say we love the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of his glory, observe the gold, observe the voice of gold. It yearns to be cleansed: Look to me, Lord, and test me, burn my kidneys in the crucible. Look to me, Lord, and test me. He says: Look at me, Lord, and test me. He would have to fear the test and instead asks for the proof. Look to me, Lord, and test me. And look good that he asks for the fire. Look at me and test me, my kidneys and my heart burn in the crucible. Are not you afraid of fading into the fire? ‘No,’ he answers. And why? Because your mercy is before my eyes.”
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