SUFFERING AND SISYPHUS

WORD 2day: 11th September, 2017

Monday, 23rd week in Ordinary Time

Col 1:24 - 2:3; Lk 6: 6-11

Have you heard of the Greek Mythology of Sisyphus - that is what I was reminded of when I read the passage from St. Paul in the first reading today. The Greek mythology is about the character called Sisyphus who receives a curse to push a boulder up the hill, only for the boulder to roll back to the foot of the hills. And he would begin it all over again. He would carryout that meaningless and endless routine all his existence! The existentialist, Albert Camus (in 1945) would compare that to human suffering. St. Paul's words to the Colossians sounds like it, when he says, I have to suffer for you and for the Laodiceans without having even seen your faces. But Paul never ever felt it was meaningless or endless!

What does give meaning to our sufferings? All our laws and regulations, discipline and rules, what really makes them all purposeful? It is not what, but who! It is God who renders them all meaningful and purposeful. Without God, suffering is meaningless, pointless and misery. With God suffering is salvific, purposeful and destined towards an ultimate good. It is God who renders our sufferings, our mortifications, our rules, our legalities meaningful. None of these would mean anything, even if we kept them with utmost diligence, if we do not feel close to God. With God suffering is salvific! Without God, like for Sisyphus, our sufferings are mere miseries.