God intends great things for our lives, but when we look at our personal sufferings, that can be hard to hold onto. What are we to do with suffering when we don’t experience healing? There can even be a misconception that there is a certain point in time at which I am finished with my healing journey or that there are people who don’t experience suffering. Neither of these are true. We all go through sufferings to one degree or another in this life and healing is an ongoing process.
Since suffering is an ongoing process, healing ought to be, as well. The Lord’s mercies are renewed each day and He always has greater freedom, joy, and peace for us. They can be a regular part of our daily prayer times. If we normalize the concept of suffering, we can be alleviated of the pressure and burden that we aren’t good enough if we still have areas of woundedness.
Life is a process and there’s always something that is going to come forward where the Lord wants to bring us into greater wholeness and deeper relationship with Himself. Healing is certainly a good thing and something to be open to and seek. However, there is time. Life is a process. The Lord is ever present to us and can even surprise us with healing. If the Lord is permitting us to suffer, it can be a great challenge for us to trust in God’s love and goodness, but we know that He is all good, all loving, and all wise.
As Catholics, we are privileged to have access to the Lord in His Real Presence. We don’t have to wait for a healing Mass because every Mass is a healing Mass. We don’t have to fear pain and suffering when they come, and the Lord hasn’t yet healed it because He is working an even greater healing in us in the waiting. We don’t suffer alone. When we unite our sufferings to the Lord’s and suffer them with Him knowing He is suffering them with us, they become an occasion for intimacy. This is the notion of atonement. At-one-ment…being at one with Jesus.
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