Faith and Suffering

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Those of you who know me personally are aware that our family has experienced a profound tragedy that has sunk us all into deep pain and grief. It is the kind of suffering that shakes you to the core and begs for answers. There aren't any. I feel like I've been gripped by a huge wave, swirling out of control, wondering if I'll ever come up for air. As a mother and grandmother, I look at all those I love around me and suffer for myself and them. Can a person really die of a broken heart?

And so I search, not for answers, but for meaning. Why do we suffer? If there's no purpose then life is meaningless, "full of sound and fury and signifying nothing."

Funeral Today: Always a Good Time to Reflect on What's Really Important

This has been a summer of funerals. Today was our fourth in just a few short months. What was particularly memorable at today's funeral was one son's wonderful "memorial" to his father near the end of Mass. It wasn't the typical eulogy about all the great things Dad accomplished. He gave a very brief testimonial of how his Dad's faith and fidelity brought him back to the Church. He called himself a "prodigal son" but testified to his dad's never wavering in the faith. I couldn't help noticing at Communion that only about half the family went up to receive. Later I was talking to someone who said the mom told him her husband offered all his suffering that his children would return to the faith. I felt like that son's testimonial was a spark that might reignite the flame of faith in some of his relatives.

Alice von Hildebrand: Human Demotion, Supernatural Promotion

Alice von Hildebrand doesn't mention a word about Cardinal Raymond Burke in this touching article, but there is no doubt in my mind that her beloved friend is whom she had in mind. It was Alice von Hildebrand who requested a spiritual bouquet of masses to be said for the cardinal several months ago when the rumors about his demotion from the Apostolic Signatura began to fly. I also heard via friends how grieved she was by his demotion. But I didn't need to be told. I only had to read the words below:

Well known, alas, is the human temptation of making reproaches to God for “ill-treating his friends” – in contrast to Satan who favors his “children” in every possible way… until they die. Power, success, fame, riches: these are the gifts that the Evil one generously distributes to those who have sold their soul “for a mess of pottage.” 

What a Difference Faith Makes: The Story of Two Dying Women

Brittany Maynard (29) is dying of inoperable brain cancer. One can only grieve for this young woman's ordeal and the fear that must accompany it. She's scheduled her check-out day for November 1st because she wants to celebrate her husband's birthday on October 26th. And she's made her final days a crusade to promote physician-assisted suicide in every state in the nation. She's working with Compassion and Choices, a group with roots in The Hemlock Society. Rita Marker, an expert on the history of the euthanasia movement often points out that the movement to legalize "mercy killing" isn't about the right to die, but the right to kill. And it grew out of The Hemlock Society whose founder, Derek Humphry smothered his first wife, Jean, when drugs failed to kill her. He then drove his second wife Ann (who participated in the killing) when she developed breast cancer years later. (See here.) Brittany, no doubt, hasn't got a clue about the history of this group making her the poster girl for their deadly agenda. What a coup!

Kara Tippetts is dying as well - of metastasized breast cancer. But she is facing her ordeal with faith. She recently wrote a book, The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life's Hard.  She continues to blog her story of life at Mundane Faithfulness. Instead of turning to death, Kara turns her face to life -- to live every minute trusting in God and seeing suffering, not as a curse, but a grace, In a letter to Brittany she wrote, "Suffering is not the absence of goodness, it is not the absence of beauty, but perhaps it can be the place where true beauty can be known....Knowing Jesus, knowing that He understands my hard goodbye, He walks with me in my dying." She expresses a deep compassion for Brittany's suffering saying,  "My heart longs for you to know Him in your dying. Because in His dying, He protected my living. My living beyond this place."

These two women are putting faces on another battle in the war between the culture of life and the culture of death. One is the champion of death and despair; the other is the champion of life and hope. Which way will our culture go? With the courts so often having the final word, I fear we can expect the same result as the battles over abortion and same-sex "marriage." Nevertheless, we must continue to fight and witness to life!

It's ironic that Brittany plans All Saints Day to commit an act that can only be described as a blasphemy against God. Let's beg all the saints to intercede for her that the grace of God reaches her heart and saves her from walking through the gate with the sign, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here." Even if she goes through with her suicide continue to pray. Remember Jean Vianney telling the grieving widow of a man who jumped from a bridge to his death that her husband repented between the time he jumped and the moment of his death. We cannot know the final end of anyone, even those who commit suicide. I'm praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for Brittany today. Will you join me?