The following text by Chiara Lubich touches on a subject that the current pandemic has brought much into evidence: suffering. It helps us to perceive a mysterious presence of God in suffering, since nothing escapes his love. This genuinely Christian approach instils hope and encourages us to make every suffering our own, those that affect us directly or that of the people around us.  … Suffering! The suffering which at times affects our whole being and the suffering which crops up and blends bitterness with sweetness in daily life. Suffering: an illness, a misfortune, a trial, a painful circumstance… Suffering! How should we … consider the suffering which is always ready to appear in all our lives? How can we define it, how identify it? What name can we give it? Whose voice is it? If we consider suffering from a human point of view, we are tempted to look for its cause either within us or outside of us, in human wickedness for example, or in nature or other things. And all this might actually be true. But if we think only in these terms, we forget what matters most. We forget that behind the story of our lives there is the love of God who wills or permits everything for a higher purpose, which is our own good. That is why the saints take every painful circumstance they encounter directly from the hands of God. It is impressive how they never go wrong in this regard. For them, suffering is the voice of God and nothing else. Immersed as they are in the Scripture, they under­stand what suffering is and must be for a Christian; they grasp the transformation that Jesus worked in suffering, seeing how he changed it from a negative factor into a positive one. Jesus himself is the explanation of their suffering: Jesus crucified. For this reason it even becomes lovable, it even becomes something good. That is why they do not curse suffering, but bear it, accept and embrace it. If we too open the New Testament, we will find this attitude confirmed. Didn’t St James say in his letter, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy” (Jas 1:2)? So suffering can even be a cause for joy. After having invited us to take up our cross and follow Him, doesn’t Jesus then affirm, “Those who lose their life” (and this is the height of suffering) “will find it” (Mt 10:39)? Suffering therefore is hope of salvation. For St Paul, suffering is even something to boast of, indeed the only thing to boast of: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14). Yes, for those who consider it from a Christian viewpoint, suffering is something great: it even makes it possible for us to complete in ourselves the passion of Christ, for our own purification and for the redemption of many. So then, what can we say to those who are struggling with suffering? What can we wish for them? How can we relate to them? First of all, let’s approach them with the greatest respect. Even though they may not think so, at this time they are being visited by God. … Let’s assure them of our continual thoughts and prayers, so that they may be able to take all that distresses and causes them suffering directly from the hands of God, and unite it to Jesus’ passion so that it can bear the greatest fruit. Let’s help them to always have the value of suffering present before them. And let’s remind them of that marvellous Christian prin­ciple of our spirituality, in which suffering, when loved as a countenance of Jesus crucified and forsaken, can be changed into joy.

Chiara Lubich

 Taken from a telephone conference call, Rocca di Papa, 25^th December 1986)  Published in C. Lubich, On the Holy Journey, New City Press, New York 1988, pp. 162-164