Sweet Suffering
“Your grief will become joy.”
Sisters, this Gospel is a Gospel for single ladies. I know this scripture is about yearning for Christ, but when I read this scripture, I feel like Jesus is speaking directly to the heartache present within my heart.
I recently had a conversation with a good friend about my heartbreak, disappointment, and pain at being single late into my 20’s. At the end of our chat, we both concluded that the gift will be so much sweeter when it’s received after suffering for it.
Jesus invites us into the sweetness of suffering.
Despite the ups and downs, the good days and the rough ones, we still have something to offer our future spouses and children or religious orders - we can give the gift of suffering. And if we choose to offer up our suffering and give it meaning, it turns from bitter to sweet. We can offer our sufferings for the anointing of our marriages or for our children (spiritual or natural). We can still serve our vocations even if we’re not in them.
We have access to sweet suffering if we will choose to engage it - if we will choose to offer up our suffering instead of begrudging it. Sisters, when we feel uncertain in our suffering, we can offer our uncertainty to God knowing that He is certain even if we aren’t. He has promised that our grief will become joy, and He is a God who keeps His promises. Even when we can’t be certain about anything else, we can be certain of Him.
Father,
Thank You for being certain. Thank You for allowing our suffering to mean something. Thank You for teaching us how to suffer - that our grief might become joy.
Father, transform us. Change us from reluctant suffer-ers into joyful, generous suffer-ers. Teach us how to offer up our difficulties and our trials for those around us and the life before us.
God, we love You. Teach us how to find the sweetness in suffering. Amen.