Suffering (Attention and Focus)
- Michael Haldas
- Aug 5
- 3 min read
“I believe that the question of innocent suffering and the existence of God may be the most significant and essential question of our time. The explosion of knowledge in our world has made an awareness of innocent suffering more apparent than at any time in history. At the same time, people seem not to be crippled by this knowledge. Most live with the contradiction posed by their own happiness and the suffering of others quite comfortably. We change the channel, or wait for the news cycle to shift. The war and suffering that were daily front page stories three months ago, are now no more than a column inch on page four. The suffering has not changed – but our attention has shifted.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The deeper the sorrow, the closer is God.” Deep wounds are important and necessary for our religious experience. They are an opportunity for us to feel and find God, though He is not far from each one of us. (Acts 17:27) This opportunity is determined by the providence of God, a key aspect of which is the correction and focus on the positive consequences of those moments in our life that cause us suffering. However this is only an opportunity, not an inevitability. Often it happens that a person, having misconceptions about himself and God, chooses the wrong path in moments of sorrow; he therefore begins to grumble, becomes angry, and departs from faith—and consequently, he approaches despair. And the negative consequences of such a spiritual danger greatly exceed the initial reason it was provoked.” (Priest Dimitry Vidumkin)
“…we all know that suffering sometimes gets a person down so far that he is unable to raise his eyes up to Heaven; more than that, suffering leads to a desperate attack on faith. As believers, like the friends of Righteous Job the Much-Suffering, we begin to teach the suffering person instead of saying words of comfort: “It’s your own fault—the Lord has punished you,” and so on. Saying this, we don’t even realize that a living human soul is in front of us, weighed down by its sorrows. You should not show your knowledge and your “high wisdom” here, because all this blocks our path to compassion. And this leads to the main conclusion: it is not our teaching that a person in sorrow needs, but our consolation. Sometimes God works through another person to comfort and encourage us. Our task is not to reflect on suffering, but to respond to it properly. We have no right to teach another person, much less to judge him. If we were in a similar difficult situation, no one knows how we would behave.” (Hieromonk Kirill Popov)
“….where there is suffering, where the flames of temptation burn, and where the terror of death grips people—God is among them. He is not a distant deity calling them to endure suffering that He Himself would not bear. He does not save from the outside, without participating in their suffering. Our God descended into our midst, taking on everything that defines the human condition. He endured the fiery trial and prevailed. In the midst of these fiery trials, He grants freedom to those who remain with Him. He descended into the depths of human hell and there proclaimed freedom, God’s victory, and new life for humanity.” (Metropolitan Anthony Bloom)
“Have faith in God. Thousands of weak people became Saints because they have understood this simple thing: we are not an accident and there are no accidents in life! The worst accident we could ever suffer is our disconnection from God.” (Bishop Emilianos)
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