On Suffering

It's hard to take in the suffering of the teen daughter of Jennifer Fulwiler. Jennifer was a blogger around 2004, then Catholic convert and mother of I've-lost-count, followed by a comedy career. Her daughter has a particularly vicious form of brain cancer and doctors have been fighting it for almost a year now. Sometimes the tortures of hospitals and chemo seem to outweigh the potential benefit but if you're that young and you have a 30% chance of winning then why not. But on the other hand I'm not so fond of the medical industrial complex. A lot of it seems driven by profit with less attention to the suffering they cause, particularly chemo. 

The inability to accept suffering is our modern condition. Pope Benedict in 2007 wrote, 

"the individual cannot accept another's suffering unless he personally is able to find meaning in suffering, a path of purification and growth in maturity, a journey of hope. Indeed, to accept the "other" who suffers, means that I take up his suffering in such a way that it becomes mine also. Because it has now become a shared suffering, though, in which another person is present, this suffering is penetrated by the light of love.

The Latin word con-solatio, "consolation", expresses this beautifully. It suggests being with the other in his solitude, so that it ceases to be solitude. Furthermore, the capacity to accept suffering for the sake of goodness, truth and justice is an essential criterion of humanity, because if my own well-being and safety are ultimately more important than truth and justice, then the power of the stronger prevails, then violence and untruth reign supreme. Truth and justice must stand above my comfort and physical well-being, or else my life itself becomes a lie."

These are familiar sentiments but I have to constantly remind myself that the point of earth is not to avoid suffering but to find meaning and growth in it.