(Photo Adobe Stock)
By Ken Rolheiser
My personal journey has led me to a growing gratitude for life’s challenges, mysteries, and sufferings. At present, I am the primary caregiver to my wife, who is suffering from severe cognitive decline due to progressive dementia. Daily, I am graced with the joy of remembering our lives together.
We celebrated our careers that included raising a family of four, seeing their marriages and careers, the birth of nine grandchildren, and life lived under the umbrella of extended families and a faith community. My greatest blessing is a growing realization that all is well with God’s plan for us.
I have often stood in the presence of suffering and pain and wanted just the right words to offer comfort and hope. In quiet reflection, I am coming closer to understanding the mystery of suffering and Christ’s paschal sacrifice. The Paschal Mystery shows us that pain and suffering lead to redemption.
In our fallen state, sin and suffering are a part of our daily lives. Christ entered into sin and death to save us, and He also transforms our sufferings when united to Him. This truth is echoed by stories experienced by fellow Christians.
At the funeral of my brother-in-law, my sister shared a powerful message about how she and her husband had been blessed by the cancer that took his life. In the short years they lived with that cancer, their lives took on an urgency as they enjoyed their children growing, graduating and marrying. All is blessing as God showers us with incredible daily joys and gifts.
Constance C Hull shares the story of her friend whose husband underwent treatment for cancer and then developed complications, ending up with many pulmonary embolisms (blood clots) in his lungs, which made breathing difficult for him.
“Despite how hard things are right now, I looked at her and told her that she will come out of this stronger. That the Lord will use it to make her and her husband holier. This illness will be for God’s greater glory, which we were reminded of in the raising of Lazarus.”
In “The Paschal Mystery Reveals How Christ Transforms Suffering” Hull relates attending her sick husband, wondering if he was going to die, but realizing: “We still have a long way to go on the path to holiness, but we wouldn’t be where we are today if we hadn’t suffered as much as we have in our nearly fourteen years of marriage.”
The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life… For the most holy Eucharist contains the Church’s entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our Passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to us.” (Ecclesia De Eucharistia, John Paul II).
Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross continues to be reenacted every hour of every day around the world. Calvary continues to give us life and hope. As we grow in the very life of Christ through scripture, the Eucharist and prayer, we reach the understanding that suffering and illness in our lives has a purpose.
When we are on that sickbed or attending the illness of a loved one, that is when we are not alone. We are not abandoned by Jesus. God’s life continues in us.
Easter is about preparing for our Gethsemane, which we will face one day. With joy, we remember that Christ promised to prepare a place for us so that we may be with Him. (John 14:2).
Ken Rolheiser is an author of six books and a spiritual column PAUSE FOR REFLECTION since 1998. A lay minister in St Joseph’s Parish and an occasional speaker, Ken has been involved in the Canora Ministerial Association and the Archdiocesan Stewardship Committee (as well as others). For details see www.kenrolheiser.com.
