What's the gift?

I have been inspired by persons who, in the face of difficulty, ask the question, “What’s the gift?”  I believe that the ability to see the positive growing, edging forward energy within those difficult times is at the center of our Christian Faith.  When Jesus announced that He would go through suffering and death and on the third day be raised, Peter tried to deny that this terrible thing would ever happen.  Jesus told Peter that he was not thinking the way God thinks.  No, God does not will suffering and death in itself, but gives gifts of love in new life in and through suffering.  I want to find what’s the gift in every untoward event as it happens. Maybe I can end up being very gifted!  And my friends, too!

SUFFERING AND LOVE

One of our Sisters lost her cell phone.  She would be set back terribly in her professional work if she did not find it.  Besides, where would she find the money to buy a new one?  She had calls to make and could not do it.  Lots of stress and distress.  The last time she had touched the phone was in a church two hours away, to turn it off.  My mind went to the suspicious.  There was a family with small boys behind us.  Did one of them sneak an entry into her purse?  

Unexpectedly Sister had met a friend at the church.  At the discovery of the loss, Sister called her friend to ask her to look for it in and around the pew where we had sat.  A telephone call came this morning:  would the friend say she couldn’t find it?  (If someone else had found it, it could be gone forever.)

The cell phone was found in the sacristy of the church.  Whoever had found it at the pew had placed it in a safe place where the owner could find it.

The loss of a cell phone is an every-day kind of grief that takes place for all of us sooner or later.  It’s just a tiny example of the many sufferings of life.  In her book, The Emergent Christ,  Ilia Delio makes a big point that suffering is connected with love.  God is love.  How can one embrace the suffering from having lost one’s cell phone?  On hind sight, at least, one can see points of love in the story above.  The friend was there for Sister.  The one who found it respected that the owner would be delighted to have the phone. 

Suffering

How can God allow such terrible suffering as we see in Japan or which may hit us in the future?  I believe that, as far as suffering caused by nature is concerned, God created the universe to evolve, and allows this evolution to take its course.  When it’s time for the continental plates to move, they move, and the consequences may be grave for those people who have built their homes there.  In general, we cannot fault people for mistakes made as to where they live, because many times it is not known when nature will strike destruction for humans.  We are part of nature.  At the same time, we live with the special light God has given us in Christ.  Our response to the tragedies brought on by nature is to alleviate the suffering by the self-giving love of Christ in and through us. Our call is to do all we can as God’s instruments for God’s presence of love in the world.

BEAUTY AND PROBLEMS

I wrote my last blog on the morning of the earthquake in Japan, before I knew that it had happened.  I mentioned my impatience with the length of the winter here in Minnesota and the frequent appearance of snow, how beauty and problems come in pairs.  After seeing the images of the ravages of the earthquake and the tsunami, I said to myself, “Rose Mae, how insipid you must appear in your blog – talking about the inconveniences of winter and the beauty of a snowflake when hundreds of thousands of people are suffering terribly and many people have died in Japan!”

Yet I see it again:  the terrible ravages of nature on one hand, and the beauty of the Japanese people on the other hand.  Beauty and suffering, together in one glimpse.  May God grant healing, relief and blessings for our suffering, beautiful sisters and brothers!  I am very sorry I cannot be there.