The Suffering Man

I discussed prayer with a group of high schoolers today.  It was a good discussion, but at one point I wished to bring up a point but deemed it too “advanced” to be discussed at that moment.  I wish to record it here.

I learned this semester that it is possible to make the very act of suffering a prayer.  This semester I had more trouble making time for prayer than any other time since I entered seminary, but the graces flowed more readily than ever.  I’d say the only way to explain this is to acknowledge that suffering itself can be a form of prayer, of uniting ourselves to God.  It is also the case, however, that some people suffer and become bitter.  What distinguishes those who become bitter from those who become holy through suffering?

It’s odd that God uses suffering to improve us.  Why didn’t God choose pleasure to produce saints rather than suffering?  Why did God choose silence and obsurity as the vehicle for his voice rather than the sounds of a busy city?  Why did God choose evil and the Cross rather than comfort and leisure to be the precursor to the Resurrection?  I don’t know the answers to these questions; all I know is that I have found Christ to be most present to me in silence, suffering, and the Cross.  We may never understand why God chooses to reveal himself in the ways that he does, but the key to making one’s suffering a prayer is simply to acknowledge that God is infinitely wiser than us, and that he wishes for us to find him in the midst of tribulation.  When we accept our crosses with such faith and hope that the way of the Cross ultimately ends in Resurrection our lives truly become a prayer.  Thus, the keys to making one’s suffering a prayer are the theological virtues.