From the diary of a Russian priest...
Submitted by Dirk Gently on June 02 2000 22:55:05
In reply to Ruminations submitted by Ford Prefect on May 26 2000 14:06:38
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Conversation with X after an operation for cancer. She feels constant, terrible pain ('like dogs gnawing and tearing me to pieces'), and there is no hope at all of any improvement in her situation. Here are her thoughts: 'I think that I understand why God has sent us this misfortune. We are so bogged down in daily trifles, in petty anger, irritation, that God wanted to shake us. How everything has been changed, what extraordinary spiritual qualities have been revealed in all of us! Yesterday L. spent the night with me, and what a night! She was infinitely gentle and patient, she did everything so quietly, so skilfully. And everyone has been so kind and attentive.' Here, then, is the meaning of suffering. Our Lord has infinite pity for us, but what is to be done if it is only when stricken by misfortune and calamity that we are able to give out some sort of sparks, some sort of sacred fire? That is why there are wars, revolutions, sickness. All this seemed far more full of meaning yesterday, in a dying person's room, than it appears in these pallid notes. Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, 1881-1934 * * * * * I love the fact that he added that last sentence. I don't think we will ever receive a satisfactory answer at the theoretical level. But the fact that so many have found peace in the midst of profound physical and spiritual torment leads me to believe that suffering does not have to be meaningless. In Phillipians 3:10, St. Paul wrote about the fellowship of sharing in Christ's sufferings (as the NIV translates it). We are one body, and if one member suffers, all suffer with it. I do not like theodicies. I would rather weep with the suffering than explain to them why they are in pain. Dirk |
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