In his book Render Unto Ceasar, Archbishop Chaput has a nice little explanation of the Christian view of suffering:

Someone once asked me how any sensible person could choose to become a Christian because Christians have such an unhealthy desire for suffering. The best answer comes from Leon Bloy, a writer who himself chose to become a Catholic. “man has places in his heart which do not yet exist,” wrote Bloy, “and into them enters suffering, that they might have existence.” In a sense, all Christian belief is cocooned in those words. Christians have no desire to suffer. But we do understand and appreciate the power of suffering. No one can avoid suffering. It’s the truest democratic experience. Everybody gets a piece of it. But Bloy understood, just as Viktor Frankle discovered in the death camps, that we can always choose what we do with the suffering that comes our way. We have that freedom. This is why suffering breaks some people, while it breaks open others into something more than their old selves, stretching the soul to greatness.

Christians don’t like suffering any more than anyone else. They certainly don’t go looking for it. But people who believe in Jesus Christ do try to accept and use suffering as Christ did: that is, as a creative, redemptive act. Suffering lived properly is the heart’s great tutor in humility, gratitude, and understanding of others, because they too suffer. That is why Pope John Paul II once described the Bible as the “great book about suffering.” He meant that Scripture is the story of God’s call to each of us to join our suffering to his own in healing that evil and pain in the world. Scripture urges us to follow the Good Samaritan who saw even a suffering stranger as his neighbor and acted to ease his wounds. Thus God’s “great book about suffering” is not only about God’s love for us – but about our solidarity with others. The cornerstone for Christian action in the world is the Word of God itself. (pp. 47-48)

In this day and age, when the world seeks to overcome human weakness and avoid suffering at any an all cost – even to the point of accepting killing as an answer to our problems – it is difficult for people to wrap their minds around the Christian message accepting and carrying our crosses, much less accept it and live by it. It seems so defeatist and masochistic even. But to those who believe, it is the way to true healing, comfort, happiness and redemption.

This is by no means an easy message to follow, even for the most devout. Besides much faith and hope in God’s promise of eternal life, it requires, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, obedience and a great deal of humility – recognizing that our bodies, our lives, are not our own (Romans 14:7-9) and constantly dying to ourselves and our own desires, submitting our lives to the Will of our heavenly Father who comforts us and gives us strength in time of trial. Yes, it’s hard, but the reward is everlasting!