Looking from the inside out at suffering as God sees it!

Looking from the inside out at suffering as God sees it!

This may appear as a personal approach to how we can view all of the many tragedies that just might belong to you or your loved ones.  If we indeed are part of the presence within the Lord, as he is in us, the signs of needy souls should touch our hearts and want to reach them with healing from suffering that can only come from God.

God related to me; so you want to be close to me:  It is through this acceptance that you are to be on the side of giving all of your efforts to the souls of those you will see and pray for.  

Following is a list of close relatives and/or friends without any one of them in the most needy position.   But there are more than one that might take the first place as you will see.

  Too many families living as Apostates in a world that has rejected Christ and his Church.  
 A daughter that just lost her husband, then falls days later breaking her elbow.
Another child in a breakup of a relationship that stems from one member in a BiPolar situation.
One niece who fell and broke her knee only to have another break on the same leg.
My daughter began radiation treatments for breast cancer right after her retirement from teaching.
How about the many unnamed souls that are but a stone’s throw from me and as the Lord also views their needs the cries from all of them reach into the essence of God’s merciful compassion.  Then the realism of what suffering is all about.  Jesus never promised us a rose garden scenario; in fact he told his disciples:  “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.  But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans.”  (Mt 10: 16 - 18).

Of course none of the above needs are synonymous with Christ’s suffering, or are they?  The whole teaching about suffering reaches deeply into our everyday mishaps and as long as we hand them over as acceptance for souls who are hurting, the very conclusive grace that we receive will indeed be used as prayers for those we are viewing from inside the Lord’s essence.

Now, however, “we walk by faith, not by sight;”  we perceive God as “in a mirror, dimly” and only in part.”  Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test.  The world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith.  Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice, and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.  (CCC 164).

The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord.  But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses.  Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church.”  (CCC 1508).

Yes, we live with the grace of God and view each problem as if it is our own.  Our prayers are many and our hope is that the Holy Spirit will accommodate the agonizing suffering many experience, but we who follow Christ spiritually and the many in physical needs must take to heart the suffering we endure will release so many souls from the shackles of pain.

Through all of this I have no fears, am not forlorn, and stand on the shoulders of Christ knowing he will see me and all those I pray for through the weaknesses we are susceptible to.  Their sufferings will stand beside the Cross and share his glory for ever.  

Ralph B. Hathaway