Suffering Unexplained But Transformed (Fri. July 19)

 The Word of the Day (Friday, July 8)

The Word of the Day is "unsearchable." In today's scripture study of Romans 11:25-36, we ask how we can explain the incalculable sufferings of the world. How can we explain the suffering of the world? From a Christian point of view, how can we understand why a good and Almighty God permits evil to run rampant on the earth? To answer, St. Paul asserts in today's scripture that God's reasons are far above human comprehension. He writes, "How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (OSB vs. 33). Today, we reflect on what we do not know nor understand about God's purposes. We will find that the God of love gives us consolation and strength to endure instead of reasons for our trials. 

Today, in our reading of Romans 11:25-36, St. Paul concludes his lengthy section on the rejection of most Jews to the Gospel. Now, he sets aside his agony over his fellow Jews with a declaration that the Jewish people will finally come to believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation and, finally, a hymn of praise to God for His transcendent wisdom and inscrutable knowledge. St. Paul writes, "How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out" (Romans 11:33).  

We Affirm an Ineffable but Loving God

In the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, the priest prays, "…for Thou art God ineffable, inconceivable,  invisible, incomprehensible…" (St-Tikhon's 1984). This declaration of God's transcendence would suggest that an unfathomable God leaves us in the dark. However, the priest goes on to remind us of the revelation of the light of the Holy Trinity and all He has done for us in His invited love.

Note that this recitation gives a double-sided answer to the pain, grief, sickness, despair, loneliness, affliction, persecution, and hardship that humans experience. Likewise, in our reading, Paul can only address the question of suffering by declaring that God's ways are beyond human understanding. Yet, on the other hand, Paul assures us that we do not endure these afflictions without God's presence, support, and comfort so that we might endure whatever difficulties we face.

Unexplainable Suffering: A Path to Transformation

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware wrote, "Suffering, our own and that of others, is an experience through which we have to live, not a theoretical problem that we can explain away. If there is an explanation, it is on a level deeper than words. Suffering cannot be "justified," but it can be used, accepted—and, through this acceptance, transfigured. 'The paradox of suffering and evil,'" says Nicolas Berdyaev, 'is resolved in the experience of compassion and love'" (Ware 1995, 31). 

For Reflection 

We do not know the mind of God concerning Suffering, but we do know His heart. We know it most of all in the Suffering of the Crucified Christ for us. God is wholly unknowable in His essence, but His heart is revealed in the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Whatever may come, we have faith in Christ, who has shown us that "God is love" (1 John 4:7). That is our hope, comfort, and peace in the struggles of this age.

Works Cited

St-Tikhon's. 1984. Service Books of the Orthodox Church. Third ed. South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon's Monastery Press.

Ware, Kallistos. 1995. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's