The Mystery of Suffering

One of my daughters is suffering from some sort of throat illness--tonsillitis, laryngitis, some sort of painful throat distress that seems to go on and on. I had the same problem growing up--frequent painful sore throats. At times my throat and tonsils were so infected I couldn't swallow. The lymph nodes on my neck would be totally swollen. I'd be so sick I couldn't talk, couldn't think, couldn't function in school--all I could do was suffer.

Sometimes, when I got sick enough and desperate enough, my dad would take me to his doctor, Dr. Landsman, on Euclid Avenue near E. 260th in Euclid, Ohio. Dr. Landsman was one tough son-of-a-gun. I remember feeling so sick and so sorry for myself--and Dr. Landsman would sort of kick me in the rear into one of his patient rooms. I was so stunned that I started to smile and laugh--for the first time in a week. When he saw my swollen tonsils, he knew exactly what to do. One time it involved two shots of penicillin, one in each cheek. And then he'd advise me to gargle with salt water many times a day. And then I would recover, usually within about 3 or 4 days. Dr. Landsman, who had seen people blown apart on the battlefield, knew that I wasn't going to die from tonsillitis. But he did appreciate my suffering--and did what he could to alleviate it (and what he did almost always helped). Dr. Landsman was a great doctor even if his treatments were normally pretty basic. This reminds me of what Dr.Tom Dooley said about his medical practice in Southeast Asia--he practiced 19th Century medicine, but in a medieval society where 19th Century medicine was a great advance. If you think about it, our Moms all practiced the most ancient art of medicine--and it almost always worked!

As a Catholic I grew up immersed in the idea that we all suffer, that suffering was part of life, and that suffering could be redemptive. We were told to offer it up for "the poor souls in purgatory." I don't do that anymore, but I still strongly believe that suffering is redemptive. And I try to bring my spirit into solidarity with the suffering of the world, and remind myself how puny my own suffering compares to that experienced by so many people.

We Catholic Christians, when we suffer, think about Jesus on the Cross. We can't escape from suffering. But it always comes to an end, and it makes us better people because it teaches sympathy and love for others.