Suffering is seen as something that is both inevitable and welcome - something to be confronted rather than avoided. Many questions arise concerning the role of suffering. These questions include: How is there suffering in a world created by a good God who cares for and loves His creation?
Suffering is any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. It is usually associated with pain and unhappiness, but any condition can be suffering if it is unwanted. Antonyms include happiness or pleasure. In a phrase like "suffering from a disease" emphasis is on having the disease, less on the unhappiness it causes.
The book of Job is widely regarded as a profound poetical reflection on the nature and meaning of suffering.
Mystifier, a great lyrist wrotes in one on his poem
“ If suffering doesn't take part of one's life.He lives out of the edges of the mind.
Mahatma Gandhi says in his article 'The Law of Suffering,' "Progress is to be measured in terms of the suffering undergone by the sufferer. The purer the suffering, the greater is the progress. Hence did the sacrifice of Jesus suffice to free a sorrowing world. In his onward march he did not count the cost of suffering entailed upon his neighbors, whether it was undergone by them voluntarily or otherwise”.
Many personalities in history, we can exampled for supreme power of suffering.
Althrough the epic of Ramayana, we can see that the pure bearing and supreme power of suffering of heroine, Sita, who called as Janaki. It is obvious that Sita's trials did not end with her liberation from the demon's captivity. All versions of the Ramayana are unanimous in reiterating her fidelity and devotion towards Rama even in times of extreme adversity.
No modern day person has exemplified the response of joy to suffering more than Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa based her whole ministry on the following gospel message:
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." Then the righteous will answer him and say, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or see you thisty and give you drink?".. The king will say to them in reply, "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did to one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me."Matthew 25: 35-40.
Blessed Alphonsa to novices expresses the suffering like this;- Grains of wheat, when ground in the mill, turn in to flour. With this flour we make the wafer of the holy Eucharist. Grapes, when crushed in the wine press, yield their juice. This juice turns into wine. Similarly, suffering so crushes us that we turn into better human beings.
Pain and suffering has always been a part of human history. The rains fall on both the good and the bad; the holy and the unholy; the righteous and the unrighteous.
A lot of our suffering is due to our own unwise choices. But we are actually guaranteed by God that we will suffer persecution if we truly want to live for Him. Sickness and disease - both physical and emotional - can generally be overcome in this life by faith in God, but suffering will remain part of our lives on and off until we pass beyond this temporal existence into what God has prepared for those who love Him.
Suffering is the first of the Four Holy Truths of ‘dukkha’. The Sanskrit word dukkha originally meant the friction caused by turning a wheel on its axle. And so it is that there is a basic friction underlying all the activities of our lives.
In Hinduism, suffering defines as “ God's cosmic law of karma governs our life experiences through cause and effect. As God's force of gravity shapes cosmic order, karma shapes experiential order. Through karma, your thoughts, emotions and deeds-whether good, bad or mixed-return to you. Thus, karma is your teacher. It imparts the lesons you need and are able to meed. FOr it is a divine law that no karmic situation will arise that exceeds your ability to resolve it. Karma is not fate. You have free will. No God or external force is controlling your life. It is your own karmic creation. To be responsible for your karma is strength. To blame another is weakness. Therefore, remember God's great law of karma and act wisely.”
“Pope John Paul II has an intimate familiarity with suffering. His mother died when he was nine, and his older brother when Karol Wojtyla was twelve. AS a young man he saw his professors shipped off to concentration camps. Foe several years he walked five kilometers to work through freezing winter weather, to break rocks in a quarry or carry buckets of lime in a dingy factory while the Nazis murdered many of his friends. His father died, leaving him an orphan in an occupied country. He lost his closest friend when he was fifty. Another friend suffered a massive stroke hours before Karol Wojtyla entered the conclave that elected him pope.
The solution to the problem of suffering began with the recognition that life is suffering.
We naturally try to eliminate all forms of suffering from our life, but insofar as they are beyond our power to control, they are part of God’s providence.
It can make one turn in on himself in self-pity, or it can help one to open out upon the world in apostolic and redemptive action.
