Suffering: Schooling and Battling

“The greatest greatest honor God can do for a soul is not to give it much, but to ask much of it." - St. Therese of Lisieux

In school, we are taught lessons on different subjects of academia; hard sciences and soft sciences, languages, grammar, literature, history, mathematics, philosophy, humanities, artistry, music, and others. We receive grades based on our performance; if we act responsibly and do a good job, coming to class and completing and turning in homework as well as participating, we receive a good grade, and if we act irresponsibly, not doing our work, cheating, not showing up for the class, being lazy, we receive a lesser grade. School is a meritocracy, and the system is used to teach us both the academic knowledge and how to act responsibly, especially through our mistakes.

Suffering, any kind of trial, is the same. The trials we go through and the pain we endure is one of God's ways of teaching us the things we need to know, the things we need to come closer to Him. In this relationship with the One Who loves us beyond words, we are bound to make mistakes because we are fallen. Yet this is how we are best able to learn what He wants of us. Our mistakes will cause pain, not only for others but also for us, and by His mercy God helps us to learn from that suffering if only we will accept the schooling, however hard it may be.

By our suffering, we learn to be Christ's more, and because of this, it is those who suffer the most who can be His greatest servants. Saint Ignatius of Loyola once said, "If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings." Suffering, especially the suffering we cause ourselves by our acting irresponsibly and away from God's holy will, is our chance given to us by Him to learn and be more and more His, to be a saint doing His holy will.

Our poor marks show when we are in trials, and yet we must never fall into despair, the sin that cannot be forgiven, because it is our rejection of God's mercy because of our disbelief that He will forgive something we've done. This is the worst kind of suffering, when we cut ourselves off from His mercy by our fear that we can never go back because of our mistakes, because of our sins. Yet this is where He wants to teach us the most, in the dark pit of despair that almost everyone will go through at some point in their life. This is where He can teach us the most, because it is here that we are most vulnerable, most able to be forged anew after being smashed down. To think of ourselves as weapons that God has made that have been chipped, worn down, and even broken by the constant battling against the enemy allows us to understand that He forges us anew all the time, and makes us even stronger in battle by that reforging, which is only possible if we become chipped.

Our suffering in any trials we face allow us to learn from our mistakes, to be reforged after being broken in battle, to stand stronger again, pulled up by our Heavenly Commander, even after falling in the bloody mud. The Lord Jesus Christ pulls us out after letting us fall because His mercy is infinitely more than enough to save us from despair, even the despair we created ourselves, so that we may fight stronger than before. Fight, my brothers and sisters, fight the good fight of faith stronger every day!

St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us soldiers of the Most High God in constant battle, that we may stride and charge forward with all our might, gifted to us by our Beloved Commander, to fight against despair. Amen!