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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent

March 15, 2023

Invitatory

Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

How would you respond if someone told you that she had discovered the definitive answer to suffering (the presumption, of course, is that this means all suffering). I’d be more skeptical than eager to hear what the answer is. For we use the term “suffering” to describe an immense range of experiences. Most people would say that completing a marathon involves some degree of suffering – working through pain, continuing on even when all your body’s immediate energy reserves have been depleted. But this is a far cry from the suffering described by Simone Weil when she wrote about the “wretched” of the earth, by which she meant those who have suffered so greatly that no remaining residue of their humanness can be found. All that remains that can be seen in them – in their bodies – is a wild and horrible animality, for everything else has been robbed away. Weil encountered these conditions particularly in those who were wounded in war, for whom there was no saving.

The suffering experienced, for example, in sports usually gives way to the triumph that comes by overcoming it. We seek the joy of winning or, at least, the satisfaction of competing and finishing. This kind of suffering can make us stronger. But the suffering that haunts us is the wretchedness for which we have no remedy and for which we can find no acceptable reason. There’s no triumphing over it. It’s simply the sheer degradation of loss, which leaves us in absolute silence.

The temptation in reading the verses above from Paul’s letter to the Romans is to think that he is actually providing a general answer to the problem of suffering – all suffering. After all, isn’t this what the church likes to claim. This is the place where people should be able to get big solutions to the biggest problems: when all else fails, there’s God. Added to this, there’s a most capturing momentum to the progression that Paul lays out: suffering ultimately gives way to hope, and along the way other benefits come along too. It’s a great locker room speech…

And that’s the point. Contrary to what we may want or expect, it should be heard in this way, with all its limitations. Paul didn’t describe the specific suffering experienced by the nascent Christian community in Rome, but this was his letter specifically to them in their particular context. And it’s possible for us to picture the troubles they faced, as well as what they then endured and how this could build character and commitment and, in their persistence, lead to a greater sense of hope and, yes, triumph. But Paul, here, wasn’t addressing the phenomenon of wretchedness – as if this too can be overcome by faith and determination. This suffering remains without the kind answer that will attribute worth to its occurring. It’s not something that we can defeat, even with faith. This waits upon God and a response that we are simply not able to fathom.

Holding to this distinction, acknowledging the limits of what Paul wrote, is not a concession. It’s true to our humanity and honors God’s divinity. Even more, it frees us of the burden of trying to live by and pass off false answers. This leads only to disappointment, which, then in turn, closes off hope.

Prayer

Heavenly Father: if you permit us to know the many magnificent secrets of science, do not let us forget the one thing necessary; and if you desire to extinguish the vigor of our minds or if you let us grow old on earth so that our souls get weary, one thing there is that can never be forgotten, even if we forget all else, that we are saved by your Son.

Søren Kierkegaard