Surprised by suffering

I’m sure it doesn’t come as news to you that we live in a unique cultural moment. Far from everything being progress, everything being “up and to the right”, every culture, even ours a hundred years ago, has been reconciled to the idea that everything in life is loss. Everything is sorrow. 

If you read the journals and diaries from people—even from the early 20th century—you’ll see it. They understood this. They weren't surprised at suffering. They weren’t surprised at death. They weren’t shocked. They didn’t freak out. Most of the time they never even complained…at least not like we do.

 We are, perhaps, the first culture in history that this is a shock to. We’re surprised by suffering.

 St. Paul in this week’s Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 4, tells us, don’t be. Why would you be surprised by suffering? Everything—everything—in this world is, in his words, “wearing away”, our bodies, our skills, our families, our relationships. That’s life under the sun. Stick around long enough and you’ll experience suffering, disappointment, difficulty, and troubles.

 But Paul reminds of this sure and certain bad news in order to remind us of something really good: despite the reality of suffering, Christians, uniquely, can live with a life shaping certainty that all temporal suffering is “light and momentary” compared with an “eternal weight” that is our sure and certain future.