Enduring the absence of God

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"A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me...I  say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour  has come, but as soon as she has given birth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish..." - John 16:16,20-21

Life has no shortage of hardships and discipline. Often hardships lead us to question some of the foundational beliefs that we have. This is not the lazy doubt of comfort and ease, but the painful questioning that arises from our failure to endure struggle.

If St. Isaac The Syrian is right, and life is given for repentance, then all struggle is the path to that goal. When We don't endure, when we forget the true aim of life, when the sorrow of a loss we may have endured causes us to focus solely on the thing lost, we doubt. When Christ says, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:37)," it sounds at first to be overbearing or cruel, but it is actually Him realigning our focus. He disheartens us now by the sacrifice He calls us to in order to shield us from what we think will do us the most good, that is clinging too tightly to anything or anyone to point of compromising on temporal things.

"Why does He do this? He is testing....This very thing is a consolation...Likening despondencies to the exceeding pains of childbirth...He did not just say that the pain will pass away, 'but she does not even remember it,' so great is the joy which succeeds; so also will it be with the saints." -St. John Chrysostom (Homily LXXIX on John XVI)

Such words as these are no doubt of little comfort to those in suffering, to those who may have lost someone or something precious. But they are truths to hold onto in the midst of our losses and struggles. Notice that Christ does not treat sorrow as something that should be put away with, but as a thing that will turn to joy if we will endure it.

We cannot pretend to know why every minute or grand evil is allowed to go forth. God once spoke to St. Anthony and said that knowing such things benefits nothing. And it seems that the question that comes out of suffering is "why?" And it seems that God is always silent in this regard.

Beloved, what are we to do with the reality of what Christ represents? We are to realize that our faith does not shield us from suffering. On the contrary, it often increases it. But our faith is unique, Christ is unique in that He gives meaning and glory to everything, He makes everything redeemable, He turns all sorrow into joy, not simply in some heaven far off in clouds but within this life as well.

He gives us a taste of the joy that awaits. Let us be patient, enduring all things through the help and guidance of His Spirit.