The New Criterion

Jul 05, 2007 12:13 PM

The Meaning of Suffering: Part V

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Roundtable Index: Introduction | Part I: Roth | Part II: Palazzi | Part III: Pearl | Part IV: Yellin | Part V: Guimond | Part VI: Glazov | Part VII: Evanier | Part VIII: Kimball | Part IX: Roth | Part X: Palazzi | Part XI: Pearl | Part XII: Yellin | Part XIII: Guimond | Part XIV: Glazov | Part XV: Evanier | Part XVI: Kimball (Conclusion) |

Fr. Maurice Guimond, a Trappist monk at Our Lady of Calvary Abbey, in Rogersville, New Brunswick, Canada. He was superior of his community for ten years.

Fr. Maurice: The questions we are tackling are, of course, immense, as immense as God himself. When struggling with my faith, I have to remind myself of what Jamie expresses when responding to Mr .Pearl (I paraphrase): if I try to downsize God to what I can understand of him, I no longer have a God. So my faith has to come first, and then I try to understand.

The story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac leaves me too somewhat perplexed and depressed. Is not the figure of David more interesting, when he cries over Absalom, his would-be assassin son’s death? “And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!” Then I say to myself that, well, God did just that: he died for me, the rebellious son, through his only Son, more precious to Him than himself.

Christ’s crucifixion, we Christians believe, would be nothing more than another hideous crime if he had not willingly died so that others might live. In the gospel of John, when the religious leaders decide to eliminate Jesus, the given argument goes: “And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” This was also Jesus’ understanding: “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. (…) No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

In trying to understand the meaning of suffering, we rarely escape the temptation to find someone to blame. Whether we believe in Him or not, God comes handy for that purpose. Of course, we can question God (just read the psalms!), but Jesus, who came to reveal the Father, never gave any “explanation” about suffering. He simply suffered like us, with us and for us, and in doing so, he said he was doing his Father’s will.

So the mystery of Malki’s death and of Danny’s remain whole, and I feel very deeply for their parents. The bigger mystery for me is why we, humans, are so cruel to each other? From day one, it seems, all through the history of humanity, we witness man’s inhumanity to his fellow human. Is it because we are still in the process of being created? – I agree with Sheikh Palazzi in this that creation is not something that happened so many thousand years ago, but is a continuous process. God IS creator, and to me, evolution is this continuing process. I believe that God’s week, so to speak, is billions of years long. – So, my dream is that we, humans, will eventually outgrow this tendency to destroy each other and put an end to man-made sufferings. What can the meaning of hate be, anyway?

As we are talking about suffering, we are almost irresistibly drawn to center more on the sufferings humans inflict upon each other. Evidently, they “hurt more” than those inflicted by Nature. I love Rabbi Yellin’s observation: “Judaism would rather have you grateful for what you had than despairing for what you lost.” When I compare the sufferings caused by war or crime with my own personal “tragedy”, I can only feel gratitude. When I turned six, my father died of an aneurism of the aorta (Marfan Syndrome). One year later, my mother died of tuberculosis, leaving eight children ranging from 12 years to nine months old. Then between 1970 and 1979, my four older brothers also died of aneurisms, while I myself managed to come down with leukemia. I survived that, but had to go through three aortic repairs in the next 20 years, plus a few other things. Pretty sad, n’est-ce pas ? Well, I never had to suffer seeing my parents fight with each other (as a matter of fact, I am told that they were an exemplary couple), and no one killed my brothers or inflicted leukemia on me. So I have no one to hate for it. Whenever I needed medical attention, I simply went to the hospital without having to worry about how I was going to pay for it, especially the very expensive surgeries, including an aortic stint which must cost an arm and a leg. So, when I think that a great portion of humanity does not even have clean water to drink, or when I remember that thousands of people cannot step out of their house without running the risk of being blown up or shot, how can I still complain?

In other words, when I think of my own sufferings, my stomach does not hurt half as much as when I look at other tragedies, especially when hate is the cause. I keep thinking of the story of a man holding fast his 12-year-old son while bullets were flying around. One of these killed his boy in his very arms… And Malki. And Danny. And the Russian school children. And thousands of others. I find it hard, then, to find a “meaning” to suffering Ultimately, maybe the only meaning is the one we give it.

I agree with Mr Pearl that God cares immensely and passionately about the progress of mankind, but not forgetting that mankind is made of individual unique persons. Is that why He does not intervene? And if He did, how would we actually take it? At the time of 9/11, I was trying to imagine Saddam Hussein, George Bush, Yasser Arafat and other great world leaders piously kneeling by their bedsides praying: “Please, God, help me destroy my enemies!” Imagine God intervening for each of these. What a mess. Would a Divine Puppeteer really serve human dignity? I prefer to believe that God has called us to be not only procreators, but co-creators. I believe that He wants us to work along with Him at His creation, including our own creation. The difficult events of my life have helped me grow, and I have seen so many people who, upon being told they have cancer, for instance, undergo a drastic change in their life, readjust their set of values, eventually up to the acceptance of their death, which calls for an ultimate act of freedom and maturity.

I feel at once privileged and terrified to be part of such an illustrious symposium. What wonderful thinkers and writers. I am sure that all will agree that as a Trappist monk, my wisest discourse can only be silence.

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