WE cannot deny
that in our life we will always have some
good times and some bad times. We just have to make sure
that the good
times are really good and the bad times are really bad,
because it can
happen that what we consider to be good times are
actually bad for us,
and what we consider to be bad times are actually good
for us.
The secret in
knowing what are truly good times and bad
times is to refer them always to God who gives us the
ultimate
standard of what is good and bad, what is right and
wrong. Without
him, we would be out on a limb, exposing ourselves to the
possibility
of creating a merely subjective understanding of things
that has
nothing to do with the objective reality. We can be
living in a
fantasy world, in a bubble.
We know, of
course, that with God, everything will work
out for the good. (cfr. Rom 8,28) He can derive good even
from evil.
He can write straight with crooked lines. We should never
detach
ourselves from him, since he is actually everything to
us. It is only
with him that we can properly handle all the
predicaments, problems,
difficulties and trials in our life.
But for all
that, we cannot deny that there truly are bad
times that will make us suffer greatly. God’s goodness
and his wise,
all-powerful providence do not exempt us from these
painful bad times
which actually are caused by our sins.
But he has
shown us, through Christ in the Holy Spirit,
how to deal with them such that these bad times can lead
us to him
instead of away from him. He has shown us how to derive
good from the
evil of the bad times.
And again, the
secret is to look at the example of Christ,
the way, the truth and the life for us. He suffered all
the
consequences of our sins that are the main cause of our
suffering here
on earth. And in so doing, he is showing us how to deal
with all the
negative things in our life. With Christ all the pain and
suffering
that we will experience in this life will be converted
into
expressions of love for God and for others. There can be
no better
bargain than this!
Thus, to be
realistic in this life, we should not be naïve
as to think that there will come a time here in this life
when we can
be freed from all suffering and pain. We have to expect
them always.
They are an unavoidable part of our earthly life. We
should just
prepare ourselves for them, knowing exactly what to do.
It might be a
good idea to make it a habit to regularly
meditate on the passion, death and resurrection of
Christ, since it is
from there where we can derive the precious lessons and
insights of
how suffering can be considered good, or how the cross of
Christ which
he asks us to carry can lead us to our resurrection and
victory with
him.
It might be
good to remit here some words of St. Paul in
his second letter to Corinthians that well describe what
actually
happens when we are with Christ as we go through our
sufferings here
on earth. (4,7ff)
referring to the great gift God has given us. And he
continued: “so
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.
“We are
afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not
abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in
the body the
dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our
body…”
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