They Who Suffer

BIMBO CABIDOG

Is suffering a blessing? Most people don’t think so. They think it is bad luck or a curse. It is karma or punishment for doing something wrong.

But what do you make of the words of the Preacher who said, “Blessed are those who suffer?”

Jesus Christ suffered and died from the worst punishment men could inflict on a fellowman. He was condemned on a false charge. Yet, he did not harm anybody, or cause something bad to happen to a person. In fact, he willingly went through the ordeal of his passion and death for all of mankind to be saved.

Christ’s supreme sacrifice was the highest act of goodness no man could ever do. So, to suffer is not to pay for a wrong or evil the one who suffers may have done.

Did a malnourished child heap ill on someone to not have food to eat? Did a poor family oppress other people to be deprived of the barest needs to live? On the contrary, they would not even lift a finger against those who mindlessly profit at their expense.

But those who are suffering may have some reason to thank for. They are blessed, for they shall have peace, the Savior has taught. Suffering is a cathartic moment. It cleanses the soul and strengthens character. In the case of Jesus, it “washed away the sins of the world.”

Years ago, I was at probably the lowest point of my life. Immobility, extreme physical pain and despair pulled me to the depths. It seemed I was hurtling down on a free fall with no bottom just yet.

The situation got worse when I started blaming myself for what I was in. And my regrets were unforgiving. Faulting me for committing a stupid blunder was a logical thing. But once it got to the top of my mind, the psychological state won’t get away anymore. It ate me up like a slow burning fever.

I was lucky my attending physician saved my injured leg from being cut off. But when the gravity of what I’ve done and what may happen next dawned on me, my world crumbled.

When this ends – as it surely will, and I’m lucky to be still alive, I will be so crushed and broken there’ll be no rising up anymore, I thought. I will be down there for the remaining years of my life, perhaps to endure a slow death.

But a counter-thought inserted: living is neither being up nor down. It is reality straight in the eye, and the truth inside every man. Hierarchies are only in the mind. Positions are relative to their opposite. You are not only one thing – an accident or a misfortune. You are everything.

My mishap was really no reason to be helpless or hapless. If the future seems grim and gloomy, there’s concretely no such thing as tomorrow. There’s only here and now. It may feel like I am down, but no one can prevent me from being on top of the situation.

A great Asian revolutionary leader once said: “A fall in the hole, a gain in your wit.” I guess that was it. My suffering wasn’t about God punishing me for having done something bad. He was subjecting me to a cathartic moment, a washday in the river Jordan to sweep away the clogs and dregs in my soul. And what emerged out of it was a renewal of the mind.

I now think there’s no such thing as karma. God will correct you, and subject you to rough ordeals to be renewed and live better. But He did not send His only begotten son to die for our sins, only to hurl upon us the thunderbolts of His wrathful retribution. After all, Jesus Himself has said: “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.”

Suffering is a condition of existence that has nothing to do with having done something wrong or having made a mistake. Like cough, it is not a sickness, but a cure. Now, ponder that. Don’t let feelings of guilt and remorse make your suffering harder.