Opioid addiction has become a public health hazard. Many states are considering legalizing recreational marijuana. The teen suicide rate is appalling, and while we lament this fact, we seek ways for others who are suffering pain to end their own lives legally. When things become difficult in relationships many simply walk away from them. While we would like to believe that suffering is just a part of life, when we encounter it in our own lives, instead of dealing with it as a symptom that something in ourselves or in our culture needs to be healed, we tend to anesthetize ourselves, to cut the pain to a minimum, and to walk away from difficulties. In many ways we have forgotten how to suffer well and we think that just because there is suffering in our lives we must find ways to escape it, to minimize it, or to ignore it. When we do not deal with it head on, however, it does not disappear but becomes more intense. So we seek out ever newer ways of anesthetizing ourselves so that we can always engage in the “pursuit of happiness” — or so we think.
The great mystery we celebrate at Easter is that Jesus, by embracing the most intense, unjust pain in his crucifixion and not walking away from it, was transformed, so that forever more he could live in glory. His final goal was not to embrace the pain as if it were something glorious in itself. It was not. But Jesus embraced us in our pain and sinfulness, so that just as he was raised from the dead we, too, might rise up with him. He did not anesthetize himself or run away from the suffering that came to him from speaking the truth and living righteously. In fact, others thought they were eliminating the pain that Jesus had been to them by ending his life, but they were proven wrong, some even benefitting by accepting the grace of forgiveness and healing that Jesus freely offered them. He taught us once and for all that, though we do not seek out additional pain in our lives, whatever we endure for the sake of righteousness and good can transform us and lead us into fullness of life.
Whether you are experiencing the pain of a weakened or injured body, the pain of a divorce or sorrowful separation from a loved one, or the pain of being mocked and criticized, Jesus has given us the model of how to endure these pains with grace so that they do not ultimately lock us into the tomb of despair, but raise us up with him to fullness of life. May the blessings of the Crucified Lord, risen from the dead, be with you and all your loved ones!
