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Seeing suffering’s merit, in strangest of years
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November 1, 2020
There’s no doubt that this has been the strangest of years. It’s possibly the strangest in living memory and certainly the strangest since the 9/11 terrorist attack of 2001.
What are we to make of the world in which we find ourselves?
Our globalized culture has led to a globalized pandemic on a scale unknown in human history, and our globalized social media network has led to global herd hysteria in the wake of the killing of a black man by a white police officer. Opinions are divided with respect to how to cope with the pandemic and how to deal with the rioters besieging several U.S. cities. Should we lock down, or open up? Is more harm being caused by the economic impact of the pandemic than by the pandemic itself? What’s the risk involved in returning to some semblance of economic normality, and is it a risk worth taking? Has the pandemic been used cynically as a weapon in the presidential election campaign? Should federal law enforcement be used to tackle the rioters, or is this a matter best left to the states and the cities in which the rioting is taking place?
We all have our own views on these issues that are tearing our country and our culture apart. We all have our own place on the lockdown-or-open-up spectrum.
And yet, as faithful Catholics, is there something that should transcend our differences and unite us? Is there, or can there be, a coherent and cohesive Catholic response to our troubled world and these challenging times?
The answer is to be found in the words of Christ when He reveals himself as “the way, the truth, and the life.” He is the way out of the mess in which we find ourselves and in which many of us have lost ourselves. He is the truth that exposes the lies of the dictatorship of relativism. And He is the life that can save us from the culture of death.
And the real challenge is that He expects us to play a part, and not merely any part but His part. He expects us to take up our cross and follow Him. He expects us to be His presence in enemy territory. He expects us to suffer as He has suffered. He expects us to show the way and tell the truth. He asks us to be the light and life in the midst of darkness and death. It goes without saying, of course, that none of this is possible without His help; but it also goes without saying that, with His help, all things are possible.
The good news is that Christians have been doing this for 2,000 years and that it is through their witness and their work that the Christian civilization was built of which we are all the inheritors and beneficiaries. We have to labor as they have done. These are dark times, to be sure, but they are no darker than many of the times in which our forebears lived.
And as for suffering, we should not shy away from it for the simple reason that it is unavoidable. We all have our crosses, whether we like it or not. The question is whether we choose to carry them, with Christ’s help, or whether we choose to refuse His help, crucifying ourselves and others with the crosses we refuse to carry. The way of the cross is the truth of Christ and the life He promises, not just in this pride-darkened world but in the world of everlasting life and love to come.
JOSEPH PEARCE is the author of many books including the authorized biography of Tom Monaghan, the founder of Legatus.
