Is Suffering Good or Bad?

Them answer depends on how you face it.

We live in an age where our advances in technology and medicine have gone a long way to remove inconvenience and suffering from us humans. People are living longer than ever before. In fact, it seems that living to 100 will soon be the norm among us. We are healthier, have better medical treatments, have technology that makes our lives easier, and give us a higher standard of living than practically any time in history. Things are great, aren’t they?

Well, yes and no. While our advances in medicine and technology have given us longer lives and more leisure time, we also have fallen into the delusion that all suffering is “bad.”

During the Pandemic, we placed “safety” as the “highest good” in our society, and that produced suffering with loss of education progress, loneliness, and aged parents dying alone because their family wasn’t allowed to be with them. And now we have younger generations who are gripped by anxiety, depression, loneliness, and fear. They are afraid to form relationships, afraid to launch out on their own, and gripped by the constant worry that they won’t be “Successful.”

All of this has produced a very dangerous moment in our society. If all suffering is bad, one way to stop suffering is to remove the sufferer! What? In fact, this idea is getting so popular in many modern countries that there is a strong move to make euthanasia a “right!” Canada, whose “progressive” government brags about “MAID” (Medical Assistance in Dying), is now trying to expand the killing of people to those who are “suffering” from mental illness, even children!

But look at our Lesson today from St. Peter in 1 Peter 4:12-19; 5:1-5:

BELOVED, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a wrongdoer, or a mischiefmaker; yet if one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear?” Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory. Likewise you that are younger be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

St. Peter says there’s “good” suffering and “bad” suffering. And look how he differentiates the two.

Good Suffering flows from those times when a society is made so uncomfortable by followers of Christ that they try to get rid of them or marginalize them or make them appear “ignorant” or “out of date.” That suffering reveals the glory of God. That suffering shows the spirit of God is upon you. How? You may ask. Because when you suffer for doing good or being Faithful, you suffer well. You endure. You don’t give up simply because life has gotten difficult or you’re not popular. And you are able to be at peace in the middle of suffering because your soul is in the safe Hands of a “faithful Creator.”

But Bad Suffering flows from bad choices and bad living. If you suffer because of evil actions, you’re suffering is self-inflicted, and the natural consequences of being a “mischiefmaker” are self-evident!

Either way, suffering reveals whether it is “good” or “bad” precisely as a revelation of our hearts. As St. Peter declares, “The time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God,” this revelation of hearts isn’t news to God but absolutely necessary for us to know ourselves. This “judgment” isn’t based on rule-keeping or rule-breaking as much as it is a manifestation of the hearts of the people themselves. In the end, dear one, there is no hiding from your truest self. Life has a way of revealing who you really are and who you really love!

Approaching the inevitable suffering in life means embracing the wisdom of spiritual maturity laid out for us in the Orthodox Christian Faith. Deal with “Bad Suffering,” suffering brought about by my bad choices through repentance. Deal with “Good Suffering,” suffering brought about by external forces attempting to punish you for your commitment to Christ and His Church, through the mature perspective that this suffering is not eternal. Suffering is only forever IF we allow it to be.

No wonder the Church calls us to remember the joyous finding of the relics of the Holy Martyrs of Eugenios in the 7th century AD in Constantinople. These martyrs were persecuted for their Faith in the 4th century AD when Diocletian was emperor, and he was desperate to stop the rapid growth of Christianity. These faithful believers endured suffering, but their lives were such powerful examples of fidelity and love for Christ that the rediscovery of their relics in the Capital city is still remembered to this day as a feast of joy. Their example long outlasts their torment.

Today, is your suffering “good” or “bad?” Is it coming from outside yourself because of your faithfulness to God or is it flowing from your own hands in your choices and actions? If we are ever going to be able to stand in the light of an unvarnished revelation of ourselves, we will have to learn how to live a truly Normal Orthodox life!

P.S. Your Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest for You, received as the prize the crowns of incorruption and life from You, our immortal God. For since they possessed Your strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by their prayers, save our souls since You are merciful.