It begins with Jesus, who himself suffered greatly, especially on the Cross. If we cannot hear suffering in his cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," we are spiritually deaf! By his suffering, the Scriptures assure us, Jesus entered into all suffering, understands it, and redeems it. In the gospel today Jesus prays for his disciples. And why? Behind his loving and elegant words, lurks the reality he sees coming: after his death and resurrection, his followers will also endure great suffering. They will be persecuted for their faith, and they will need his prayers. They will, in a real sense, complete his sufferings on earth.
True Christianity is thus a completely realistic faith. The Christian realist never claims that life is without struggle. "Life is difficult," wrote Scott Peck as the very first sentence of his wonderful book, The Road Less Traveled. Suffering is truly a part of life. Suffering may be physical when we suffer disease or injury. Suffering may be mental when our brain chemistry get mixed up and we are unable to cope with life in normal ways. Suffering may be emotional, the result of wounds and events that visited us while very young, or trauma that hit us later in life. Suffering may be relational, as when a marriage goes bad, children get into serious trouble, or co-workers or bosses treat us poorly. Suffering may be political, as when Christians are persecuted for the faith. And suffering may be spiritual as we enter into a desert time of barrenness, emptiness, questioning the ways of God and fearing we’ve lost all faith.
What do we do with all that? Certainly not isolate out one particular kind of suffering and say it alone is the Christian suffering. Suffering in any form is a hard, but not hopeless in the final analysis. What I have found true in my life agrees with what I read of the saints and heard from others along my journey: our experience of suffering is transformed—becomes Christian--when three things happen:
First, that we come to see that Christ not only understands suffering, but is actually present in our suffering, continually supporting us and praying for us. Anyone who’s gone through trying times knows that the worst of suffering is the sense of isolation from others and the fear of abandonment, of having to endure our suffering alone. This is where I find Corrie Ten Boom’s often quoted faith statement so powerful: "There is no pit so deep that Christ is not deeper still." Even if family and friends shy away from us in times of suffering, Christ never will.
Second, that we embrace our suffering as sharing in the suffering of Christ to redeem the world. In my times of suffering, it has helped me greatly to reframe my experience as a part of the ongoing suffering of Christ in the world. I look to the Cross and there see that truly, suffering is the Christian way; it is the path to redemption of ourselves and the world. And this leads Christian realists to accept suffering leading to identification with the sufferings of others. I have noticed in myself and in other people of faith, that great suffering produces greater compassion for others. Where formerly we might have been judgmental on certain issues, after we’ve had to face suffering and humiliation in our own lives, we understand others more deeply and want to help them, not judge them. This is how we learn Jesus in suffering!
Third, learning Jesus in suffering leads us to want to make a difference in the world. A perfect illustration of this is the origin of Mother’s Day. Today Mother’s Day seems to be largely a commercialized binge of cards, flowers, and treating Mom to brunch. But did you know that originally Mother’s Day was born of suffering? The struggle to gain voting rights for women, the cause of peace among the nations of the world, the fight against poverty and the abuse of children, these were the central concerns of those who established Mother's Day.
The first mention of the idea of Mother's Day can be traced to Julia Ward Howe who suggested it in 1872. Julia Ward Howe had been a militant abolitionist. She wrote the famous and rather militant hymn, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" to inspire the Union Army in the Civil War.
But as the war dragged on and she saw the terrible price of conflict, Julia Ward Howe turned away from militancy. When the Civil War was over, she focused her attention on two other causes: voting rights for women, and world peace. In 1870 when war broke out between France and Prussia she wrote, "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone know and bear the cost?"... "As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women on this day leave the duties of hearth and home to set out in the work of peace." Her basic conviction was that though the world may be divided by war and conflict, there is something in the experience of childbirth binding the mothers of the world together into one family. That belief led to her to organize what she called "Mothers' Peace Day" festivals—part of the background of Mother’s Day.
Another woman, Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, is credited with bringing about the official observance of Mother's Day. She did so in honor of her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis who organized "Mothers' Work Day Clubs" in the 1850's in the area. The clubs provided medicines for the poor, inspected milk for children, provided nursing care for the sick, and shelters for children with tuberculosis. When the Civil War broke out Anna Reeves Jarvis called together four of her clubs and asked them to make a pledge that friendship and good will would not be a casualty of the war. In a remarkable display of courage and compassion the women nursed soldiers from both sides and saved many lives from both sides. After the war Anna Reeves Jarvis became a peace maker. The wounds and animosity between families who fought on either side were so deep and harsh and the suffering so great and lasting, she organized "Mothers' Friendship Days" to bring together families across the Mason Dixon line.
These women were not celebrating the mere fact of bearing children, but what they had learned from the suffering of childbirth about the essential meaning of life for us all. They knew Jesus called his family to a higher cause. Living deeply in the life of their Lord, they saw clearly that God's love extends across the boundaries that separate families, tribes and nations from each other. Christian realists therefore accept the suffering that comes from embracing such a vision. As we learn Jesus in suffering, we come to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that everyone on earth—friends and enemies alike--is a beloved child of God. Amen [Thanks to Charles Henderson for some of the information and explanation that follows, found at his webpage, http://christianity.about.com/library/weekly/aa043002.htm ]