Finding God and Our Calling in the Face of Suffering

 

Dear Friends,

                In today’s first reading, God tells Moses:

                                “I have seen the affliction of my people.

                                I have heard their cry.

                                I know their suffering

                                And I am coming to deliver them.”

               

                Our God is a God who is moved by human suffering, appalled by it. God stands over against human suffering and does not simply watch however sadly from the sidelines. God sides with those who suffer, whether it comes from a natural disaster or the sheer perversity of human beings. For more than two weeks, the world has watched the suffering of body, mind, heart and spirit that the Ukrainian people have experienced as the might of Russia bore down on their nation, unprovoked. Through the remarkable power of the camera and voices of reporters, we have watched as much of it as we could bear.

                All too often, when we are faced with suffering like this, we are tempted to think: There is no God. Or if we acknowledge God then we say  “This must be God’s will. We must be patient and not complain. We must accept the suffering God gives to others and to us as well.” But God does not call us to a tolerant acceptance of suffering, but to fight it, reject it, overcome it.  ”Suffering” Pope Francis reminds us “is a call to conversion: it reminds us of our frailty and vulnerability.”

                Look at how God meets suffering – with compassion and love. God sends whoever or whatever can stir our apathy and indifference, until we are compelled to share His divine compassion and love, to share in his works of healing and deliverance. This is our experience today.

                Watch carefully what we see happening in Ukraine. Ordinary women and men are overcome by divine impatience in the face of human cruelty and suffering and shaken from their apathy and passivity. God cares and asks us to care. God says to us” I am with you,” and in the same breath God says “I send you.”

                Truth be told, most of us are probably inclined to react as Moses did and say

                                “Send someone else, Lord. (I’m too ordinary, Moses implied.) ” I am not good enough.”

                In whatever way the message to help the suffering is framed, will we hear the call? Accept the mission? go where we are sent? In this time when we feel we can do so little to help the Ukrainian people, some of us will go there to help, maybe to fight the oppressor. Maybe we need to stay home and participate in events, rallies, fundraisers. Maybe we need to seek out our own enemies and make peace before we are all swept away by eruptions we cannot control.

                The fighting is there, but it is here as well. How can we undo hatred, division, and self-righteousness?  Where are we being sent? Will we go?

~Sister Joan Sobala