The 'advantages' of suffering

Recently I have been particularly intrigued by Philip Yancey's book Where Is God When It Hurts? By reading and reflecting on this book, I feel that it broadened my vision and understanding of suffering. It also encouraged me to celebrate the reality that suffering has its positive face too.

For those who bravely and slowly accept it, suffering can be resourceful and beneficial to them. Mr Yancey elaborates on this thought by composing a list of 10 ways to show how suffering is advantageous:

(1) Being the great equaliser, suffering brings the suffering person to a point where s/he can become aware of her/his urgent need for salvation;

(2) The suffering are not simply conscious of their continual dependence on God and healthy people but also of their independence with other suffering people;

(3) The suffering put their security not on things, which very often cannot be enjoyed and may soon be taken away, but rather on people;

(4) Those who suffer have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated need of privacy. Suffering humbles the proud;

(5) Those who suffer expect little from competition and much from cooperation;

(6) Suffering helps the suffering people to distinguish between necessities and luxuries;

(7) Suffering teaches patience, often a kind of dogged patience born of acknowledged dependence;

(8) Suffering teaches the difference between valid fears and exaggerated fears;

(9) To suffering people, the gospel becomes more a good news and not envisaged as a threat or a scolding. It offers hope and comfort; and

(10) Those who suffer can respond to the call of the gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything.

There is always a choice of how we respond differently to suffering. Yet, if we realise that suffering is a marvellous opportunity for our personal, ecclesial and societal growth, then we shall be more ready to learn from it. Pope John Paul II said, "suffering must serve for conversion, that is, for the rebuilding of goodness in the subject, who can recognise the divine mercy in this call to repentance". (Salvifici Doloris, 12).

Does this not mean, as Paul Claudel maintained, that rather than being explained away or removed, suffering becomes fruitful for us when we realise Jesus' loving, compassionate and accompanying presence in it?