Suffering as an incentive for growth

SUFFERING AS AN INCENTIVE FOR GROWTH

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            Suffering could, indeed, prove to be a great incentive for growth as time and time again, it provides that moment for us to pause and reflect over our lives. Viktor Frankl describes this phenomenon as a tussle between “what is” and “what ought to be.” Suffering serves as an indication to show that something is wrong and that it must be avoided. A perfect example of this would be sickness.

            Another issue that needs to be dealt with when we speak about suffering is our attitude towards it. E. Commaerto has this to say about suffering, “Suffering in itself is not evil. Like happiness, it is an experience which turns to good or evil according to the way we live it.” Quite often, most of us give up in the face of suffering because there is nothing that pushes us forward. This is what Viktor Frankl tries to bring to our minds. He himself had to suffer a great ordeal during the holocaust at Auschwitz. But what really kept him going was that he had a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose.

            To further illustrate, consider this example. Two persons in the same ward of the hospital; each is suffering from a crippling illness. One of them regards her illness with despair and will probably never leave her bed again. The second is now learning to walk and plans to teach in a school in the next term. Rather than being predetermined by her suffering and passively abandoning herself to fate, the latter person takes a stand in regard to it and this leads to her partial recovery.

            It happens that sometimes some people take drugs to alleviate the pain. But does that really help? Not at all! For it shirks us from the real world thereby preventing us from not coming to terms with our particular misfortune.

            Suffering is what makes us human for as Spinoza would assert that to cease to suffer is to cease to be for just as gold is tested in a furnace, through suffering, life gains shape and form. Life is a constant opportunity waiting for actualization. If we are willing to experience the tension of the painful, suffering can bring us to truth. Through reflection on suffering our purposes and goals in life are often re – examined and purified of the unwholesomeness that quickly taints a complacent life. We may return to our inner selves and be made whole once again through the hurt of misunderstanding that leads us to examine our motives or the anguish of a rejection that makes us realize what is ultimate. Continually, the ongoing rhythm of life’s suffering reminds us that we have not yet arrived.


            We also learn that suffering is a mystery. We experience this, not as a matter of thinking but rather as a matter of believing. We can catch hold of this meaning not on intellectual grounds but on existential grounds, that is, through our whole being, through faith. 

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