Lectio
“Joy does not mean the absence of suffering or frustrations. Our lives are like a tapestry intertwined with days of joy and suffering, delight and distaste, ease and difficulty. This is part of life.”
— Fr. Daniel Chowning, OCD, The Secret of Joy According to St. John of the Cross
Meditatio
In Christ we see that to live in perfect union with God’s divine will and God’s divine plan will not result in an easy life free of suffering. Rather, to walk the same path Jesus walked is a path that does not avoid suffering but moves through it with purpose and love.
Jesus’ life was not easy, but it also was not without meaning. In fact, it was exactly the suffering that Jesus faced in the crucifixion and overcame in the resurrection that gave his life its ultimate meaning.
And so it is with us. While we may enjoy the easy times, while we may cherish and cling to comfort, luxury, and pleasure, our life is made its richest when these are contrasted with struggle, disappointment, and difficulty, especially when these are overcome through grace, in faith, and with love.
The easy times when we can rest, enjoy ourselves, and feel carefree, if we are fortunate enough to have them, give our life breadth, in that they make it feel more sustainable, more tolerable, and more worth living. But it is our suffering that gives our life its depth.
Our suffering forces us to grow, to expand, and to feel and experience life more deeply. Our suffering opens us up to receive and rely on God’s grace and mercy in ways that the easy times simply cannot. God’s will for us was always love, not suffering — to be united with him in Christ, who was destined for us from the beginning. In Christ he came to us first in love, and when suffering came, he entered it fully, with and for us — and what he enters, he redeems and transforms.
And while we may not understand it, and we may wish it were other than it is, all of these experiences — joy and suffering, delight and distaste, ease and difficulty — make up the rich, textured, and mysteriously beautiful tapestry that is our life. In this, may we find the joy of Christ — for through him we know that suffering, and even death, are not our final destination, but the gateway through which we must pass to paradise.
Oratio
Divine weaver
I abandon myself
to your vision
for I cannot see
all that you can see
or desire
I give myself
to your will
and your creation
to weave the tapestry
of love
that is life
in joy and suffering
delight and distaste
ease and difficulty
I am yours
humble and faithful
make of me what you will
Contemplatio
Can you identify a moment when, in hindsight, you can now see that difficulty or suffering gave your life a depth that comfort alone could not have provided?
Related Scripture
“We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” — Romans 5:3–5 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Where Light Enters: The Wounds of Christ and the Wounds We Carry, which explores how our suffering connects us to the wounded, risen Christ — and how grace enters the world through the very places we are broken open.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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