I've been a part of the RCIA team at my parish for about 7 years. I work with several catechists who take turns presenting different topics to the candidates and catechumens. My friend suggested that I take the lesson on suffering this year, and I gladly accepted. This assignment has given me the opportunity to consider this topic in a way that I haven't ever thought about before. It seems that whenever I start considering a particular topic--Communion of Saints, Mary, Suffering, The Incarnation--I will suddenly stumble on all kinds of amazing content that I can use in my presentations. For example, I happened across this video on FB several months ago. It's long, and I usually don't have the patience to watch such a long video in my FB feed, but I watched this one, and it has helped me immeasurably. I've watched it over and over.
Joni Eareckson Tada explains her decades of suffering as a quadriplegic. After getting a cancer diagnosis, she tells her husband that suffering is a little splash of hell. When they wonder what in life are splashes of heaven, they realize that it's when you find Jesus in your suffering. So that has been one of my prayers lately, for Jesus to be present with me.
While I have felt crushing loneliness at times, I have also heard the strong, comforting voices of my sisters on the phone, felt their tender hands wiping my tears, been embraced by the sweetest 12 year old boy, received first-thing-in-the-morning texts from my brother (if it wasn't the first thing in his morning it was mine at 4:45 a.m.), sat down to many dinners lovingly prepared by my beautiful daughter, laughed with my co-workers, poured my heart out to my friend during evening walks, chatted late at night with my super-talented son, and drawn strength from my ever-patient husband. Jesus has been with me through all of these people and more.
