13th Apr 2006
Stations of the Cross Condensed and Compressed
I have fallen behind on the Stations of the Cross postings for Via Crucis. There are so many! What’s a Unitarian Universalist to do with so much suffering?
This seems like an apt time to make a distinction between pain and suffering in the context of Holy Week, but also in the context of our own lives.
There is an enormous amount of pain and suffering in the world, but I’m not convinced these are the same things. Suffering seems to involve great amounts of emotional as well as physical pain. Suffering is the feeling that we do not deserve this, that life is terribly unfair, and that the world is out to get us. Certainly before his crucifixion, Jesus must have been tempted to devote himself to these feelings.
In suffering we hold out for something else. Suffering says that we deserve a better job, a better partner, a higher status in life. Pain accepts that this is it, that this hurts, that our jobs, our relationships, our place in the world may indeed be painful.
How is your own pain different than your own suffering? What do you think you deserve?
