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R e v i e w
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This Rock
Volume 14, Number 2
 February 2003 
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Bridge of Suffering
Many are the theological issues that separate Catholics from Protestants. Purgatory, Mary, the Eucharist—issues like these cause distress to Protestants who believe that Catholics have added "traditions of men" to the "pure and simple" gospel.
But one issue on which Catholics and Protestants differ can become a bridge between them: what to make of suffering. From bestselling book The Prayer of Jabez to the televangelist promising your problems will be solved by sending him a sizable donation, the dominant Protestant view is that suffering is something to move past quickly. Many Protestants even view suffering as a failure of faith.
But what happens to the sincere believer when unabated tragedy strikes? Does he give up on God? A person who sees no value in suffering might grow angry with God and turn away.
It seems the Catholic Church alone grasps God’s plan for a suffering humanity. By sending us a Savior who suffered as a man, God instilled purpose and meaning in the sufferings of this world. Catholics see suffering rightly as an opportunity to grow closer to God. By helping a Protestant to understand there can be purpose in his suffering, you can reach out a hand of friendship that may open his eyes to the truth of the Catholic faith.
Jeff Cavins and Matthew Pinto, the editors of Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer, understand this. "Where the suffering of humanity and the suffering of God intersect, we find profound meaning," they point out in the introduction. "When our lives are joined with Christ . . . every aspect of our lives change, even our suffering" (p. 12). The editors explain how Catholic tradition from Paul to John Paul II has taught that our sufferings play a role in God’s plan of redemption.
In this book, ten people tell their painful stories. Some began their suffering already in close communion with the Lord; others were brought closer because of their suffering. All bathe their struggles in prayer, and all teach us holiness in the face of overwhelming adversity.
The authors of the book have faced unrelenting physical pain, disability, addiction, loss of children born and unborn, persecution, and more. Yet in each tragic situation, the writers drew closer to God. They learned to "offer it up"—to put their faith in the Lord and to cede control of their situations to God. They were able to see past their pain to find the blessings God offered them.
Listen to the wisdom they share. "God has used suffering as an instrument in my conversion, primarily in [my son’s] death but also in the death of my self-centered beliefs" (p. 180). "There does come, I am bound to testify, a shift . . . in the grim precincts of pain when one makes the decision to offer it up" (p. 97). "Without [real suffering] we can know God intellectually, but we do not really experience him until he bears us up on the wings of angels and brings us through difficulties that are beyond our own strength" (p. 46). "Suffering is indeed a great mystery, but the Lord has revealed to me its secret. It is all about love. If we look beyond the suffering of the cross, beyond the nails in his hands and feet, we will see love" (p. 149).
As this book demonstrates, the apologetics of suffering in the Catholic universe is really a witness to hope and to truth. It’s natural to want to put faces together with the stories, and the center photographic section allows the reader to do so.
The redemptive quality of suffering exemplified in this book may open a Protestant’s eyes to a new facet of the beauty that exists in the Catholic faith. He has probably never before fully understood what Paul meant when he wrote, "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions" (Col. 1:24). Helping him to see that God allows our sufferings to be of help to others may be an important theological bridge. Once you’ve built it, he may be willing to cross and give credence to other truths of the Catholic faith.
-- Toni Collins
Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer: Ten Life-Changing Stories of Hope and Healing
Edited by Jeff Cavins and Matthew Pinto
Ascension Press
275 pages
$12.99
ISBN: 0-965-922-847
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