GOD COMFORTS THE
SUFFERING
WHEN THEY REACH OUT IN
FAITH
To help us better understand this promise, let
us use the following Bible verse from 2 Corinthians, Chapter 1, Verses 3 and 4
which reads:
“Praised be God, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation! He comforts us in all our afflictions and thus enables us to comfort those who are in trouble with the same consolation we have received from Him.”
Jesus’ miracles of curing people with medical
problems are considered not only wonderful, but as remarkable when one
considers the lack of knowledge of diseases, illnesses and injuries and how to
cure them during that time of history.
Medicine was about the collection of beliefs, experience and information based on these areas. Treatments involved incantations, invoking gods, magical herbs, amulets and charms. As for physicians, they were drug sellers, root cutters, midwives, gymnastic trainers, surgeons or anyone who was willing to offer medical services.
And, if that was not bad enough, people lived on the average to the age of thirty-five in Jesus’ time. In other words, it was offered to earn a living, whether the person lived or died. Jesus was present to them out of love with their only cost having faith in His ability to make them whole.
Pain and suffering are normative in all societies; no matter where you live. Statistics from 2022 in the United States tell us that 2.8 million died versus 3.7 million who were born that year. With two on-going wars in Ukraine and Israel, and daily shootings in the United States, the death rates may have increased since then.
When Covid became a pandemic in 2019, millions of people died throughout the world and there were not enough doctors and nurses to help people in need to help them survive. So terrible were the causes of death from Covid-19 that relatives and friends were prohibited from visiting those who were sick with the disease in the hospital. And even the hospital staff who treated those with the disease were susceptible to be infected and died from the dreaded pandemic.
So horrific was this that many believed God had sent a plague to destroy the earth because He no longer loved His creation. Many left their church out of fear of being infected and then stayed away even when the disease dissipated because they were angry with God due to their losses.
St. Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 5, Verses 25-34, reminds us that Jesus focused on healing, not destruction. The lady dying from a blood disease realized that the earth did not offer her a cure or a way to salvage her life as she knew it. Jesus must have realized when the power he had drained from his body as she touched His cloak, that she was reaching out in desperation with all her strength to receive His love and all His healing grace as a sign of faith that she believed His message of love and salvation.
The idea of “comfort” implies at least two parties: One who gives the comfort and implies a need exclusively for humans. Only humans were created with the capacity to serve and give comfort, and we live in a world where we need it. We humans suffer distress in a unique “three-dimensional” way – past, present and future.
Believers in Christ have a comfort from God that includes a true freedom from guilt. The comfort we Christian Catholics receive flows through us to others “so we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. Like grace, comfort is an active, powerful gift to be not merely received but actively shared with others, supernaturally multiplied to advance God’s Kingdom (Mattew 25:14-30). In bringing comfort to those in trouble, we glorify God by giving a glimpse of how He comforts those who are in distress.
As fully initiated and practicing Catholics, we are called by our Church through the Holy Spirit to be present to those who are suffering in their lives, no matter what the need. If we are not already doing so, let us reach out to our families, friends and anyone we know who is suffering physically, mentally, emotionally or in their faith. Not only will we be effective in their lives, but in ours as well.
No past, present or future distress can separate us from God in Christ (Romans 8:35). We are not only comforted in our troubles, but we are “more than conquerors” in them (Romans 8:30-39). When we turn our worries into prayers, “the God of peace will be with [us]” (Philippians 4:6-9).
In the end, when we finally leave temporary troubles of this life and enter the permanent joy of the next, our Heavenly Father will forever comfort each one of us, “wiping away every tear” (Is. 25:8), welcoming us into a world where comfort is no longer needed because there is “no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4). We will enjoy the God of all comfort forever.
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