It’s been said that if you ask the wrong questions, you’ll getthe wrong answers – not wrong in the sense of answering the faultyquestions, but in the sense of addressing the situation you’requestioning. The truth of this old axiom can be clearly seen thesedays in the questions asked and the answers offered regarding humansuffering and God’s power, or goodness, or love. “If God’s soloving, why did He let our grandchild die?” “If God’s sopowerful, why didn’t He stop that terrorist attack (or whatevercatastrophe)?” For many in our slogan-saturated society, thesequestions (and their implied answer: “He isn’t”) are thediscussion-stoppers, the ace of trump thrown down in defiance to anyclaim of God’s love or goodness.

In his book Suffering – What Every Catholic Should Know,Mark Giszczak begins the discussion by straightening out thequestions. “Questions” that are actually rationalizations, orexpressions of pride, or whatever, don’t actually answer theuniversal human reality of suffering – they just paper over it,leaving those who cling to them still hurting with no solution.Drawing on Scripture, centuries of Christian devotional wisdom, andhuman experience, Giszczak begins by framing the right questions,then carefully and thoroughly answering them.

The keynote to the whole work is finding meaning in suffering. Evenbasic human experience tells us that suffering that has meaning ismore bearable. From the athlete training for the big event to a wifewho learns that her firefighter husband perished while ensuring somechildren were rescued, we instinctively grasp that it isn’tsuffering per se that is difficult to bear, but senselesssuffering. I remember this clearly in the aftermath of the 9/11attacks: people were not so much angry or vengeful as they werestunned and bewildered. The attacks were incomprehensible, they madeno sense. Why would anyone do such a thing? This touches on thedeeper question of whether suffering can ever have any meaning, andthis is Giszczak's point of departure.

From a scholar like Giszczak, you would expect well-reasoned andtheologically sound answers, and he does not disappoint. What youmight not expect is a realistic and sensitive treatment of the hardand often bitter reality of suffering, but he provides that as well.He does not offer abstract solutions to the knotty equation of humanpain, but rather speaks from his own life experience and that ofothers. His examples are drawn from everyday life, things to which wecan all relate. His advice is gentle and sympathetic, yet alsochallenging.

Another thing you might not expect from a book on suffering isassistance in deepening your devotion, but that’s exactly what Ifound. As I better understood how Jesus enters into our suffering, Ifound myself drawing closer to Him. I even found myself going toconfession after reading about how poor responses to suffering can benothing more than expressions of ego. Of course, this stands toreason – if the wrong questions and answers regarding suffering canhinder our devotion, the correct ones can aid it.

Atop all these virtues, the work is extremely accessible. Nearlyanyone could read this book and benefit from it. To me, this hasalways been the mark of true genius: not the ability to explain asubtle concept to another genius, but to explain it to the schooljanitor. Giszczak manages this deftly.

Suffering doesn’t giveglib, facile answers to the problem of human pain, becausethe topic cannot be answered that way. The reality of evil and theconsequent suffering is far too complex and personal. The fact thatGod Himself came down in person to walk beside us, and indeed enterinto our suffering, should amply indicate that the problem will admitno simple solutions. But that very fact is what provides meaning,even redemption, to our suffering. Mark Giszczak does a thorough andadmirable job of explaining how to better grasp that truth.

https://ignatius.com/suffering-sfwckp/