We Rejoice in our Sufferings

by Fr. John Dresko

...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)

As we journey through this life that God has given to us, we struggle day-to-day to bring our faith in God and our humanity together. In our efforts to be faithful, one of the most difficult things for us to accept and to realize is the fact that this life is full of suffering and death. This is true even if we are faithful, even if we have truly repented of our sins, even if we have been totally faithful members of the Church, indeed, even if we are holy. This suffering and death is the result of the fallenness and sin of the world.

In a human sense, though, we want to avoid suffering. Indeed, we will do anything to prevent it, being endowed with the "fight or flight" instinct which fills us with adrenaline when it is necessary to protect ourselves from threats to our human existence. But this instinct and desire to protect ourselves and avoid suffering and death can only be temporary.

Suffering and death, realistically, are things over which we have virtually no control. Despite the ability to work out, watch our diets, go faithfully to the doctor for check-ups and prescriptions, we will one day be surprised to hear that we are ill, perhaps even unto death. Fr. Alexander Schmemann, of blessed memory, when he was dying, even remarked that "some people die sick, some people die healthy." The point being, of course, that we are all going to die.

When St. Paul speaks to the Romans about suffering, he places it in the context of our justification by faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 5:1-2). In his commentary on this passage from Romans, St. John Chrysostom goes through the list of everything that Christ did for us He left the glory of the Godhead, He became a man, He suffered for us, He died for us, He rose for us, He ascended for us, taking us back to the Father Whom we had rejected, He sent the Holy Spirit to us and gave us the Church.

And St. John then says that the only thing which we can truly bring to Christ as our gift is faith. We can't bring love, because we can't love enough; we can't bring repentance, because we return to our sin; we can't bring real effort, because we always fall short of the effort needed. So the only thing we can bring is faith, and our faith in Jesus Christ justifies us and makes it possible for us to share in His resurrection. But by this faith, "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" and "access to this grace in which we stand." We have been given access to the Kingdom of God, we are made citizens of heaven. We no longer live as citizens of this world, but of the next.

But then St. Paul says we rejoice in our sufferings. We don't just accept them, we don't just expect them: we rejoice in them. This sounds very strange to the human ear. Suffering for suffering's sake would be strange indeed, even sick. But St. Paul says we rejoice in our sufferings because they produce endurance.

Suffering in and of itself would be empty suffering. But suffering in faith, suffering knowing that we are created for the Kingdom of God, produces the endurance to keep going. An athlete strives for endurance to complete the contest. Suffering without faith will crush one it can turn one away from God, away from the Church, away from anything good. There is no endurance for anything if we suffer without faith.

But suffering with faith produces the endurance to continue our lives. We cannot avoid suffering in this world, no matter how hard we try. But suffering in faith gives us the strength to work our way through it, even if it is unto death. It gives us the ability to see through the suffering, beyond the suffering, to see that even if there is suffering, there is also salvation.

And this endurance, says St. Paul, produces character. Now this character is not just the way we think of "building character" being a nice guy, having morals, ethics, etc. Rather, this suffering produces endurance, which produces character or to use other words, reveals who we are. Our personhood. Am I the servant of God, John? Or just someone who is revealed as "faithful" when it is easy to be faithful and treasonous when confronted with a challenge to my faith? Am I a person on his way to the Kingdom of God; indeed, already dwelling there as much as it is possible in this world? Or am I an individual of this world whose end will come with the grave?

This revelation of my character, if faithful to the message of Jesus Christ, produces hope. We can hold onto anything we want in this world our possessions, our families, our spouses, our bodies (working out, etc.), our friendships, our jobs, anything we can think of. In the end, however, no matter what we hold onto, we will die and be brought into the church. Holding onto anything but hope is entirely useless. Everything slips from our grasp.

If we suffer (and we will) without hope, we are tempted with despair. If we despair and there is no hope in my life for the Kingdom of God, then Dr. Kevorkian is right. Some of the church fathers defined the one sin that Jesus claimed would not be forgiven (blasphemy of the Holy Spirit) as despair. When we despair, we turn from God and do not allow Him to be effective in our lives. We even convince ourselves that He can't affect our lives. If we don't have hope, everything we do, even going to church and receiving the Sacraments, would be useless. "...if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain." (1 Cor. 15:14)

There is going to be suffering present in each of our lives and we are all going to die. But the Christian transforms the suffering and death. The story comes full circle. We were created by God for communion with Him, we destroyed His creation and ourselves, we were redeemed by His Son, and His love has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit. Hope cannot disappoint us when His Spirit fills us with His love.

Finally, St. Paul reminds us that "while we were still weak," the Lord died for the ungodly. Jesus Christ did all of this for us before we were justified by His blood. Before we heard His word. Before we knew His Church. Before I was baptized into Him. Before I tried to struggle and live a Christian life.

But now that we are heirs of this promise, now that we have His Spirit poured into our hearts, now that we are baptized into Christ, "much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." Christ did everything for us even before we knew Him. As St. Paul says, "if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." (Rom. 5:9-10)

Sickness, suffering, and death are an inescapable part of this fallen, sinful world. But we were not created for this world. We were created by God for His Kingdom, where no suffering or death is present. The Christian must not wonder why there is suffering. The Christian must rejoice in the suffering, giving it to God and receiving the gift of eternal life.

A person has acquired rulership, glory and authority. Yet he does not stay in that status continuously, but is speedily cast out of it. If man does not take it from him, death comes, and is sure to seize it. But God's gifts are not of this kind: for neither man, nor occasion, nor crisis of affairs, nor even the Devil, nor death, can come and cast us out of them. But when we are dead, we then more strictly speaking have possession of them, and continue enjoying them more and more. (St. John Chrysostom, Homily IX on Romans IV)

We can hold onto whatever we want. But unless we hold onto the true gifts of God, they will be taken from us by death. If we hold onto the gifts of God, they become deeper and richer after we die, as we grow eternally into His glory!

Saint Paul does not lie. Suffering does produce endurance, endurance does produce character, character does produce hope, and hope does not disappoint us. As we struggle with life, suffering and death, we pray that God take the question of suffering from us, and give us the answer of His Kingdom.