{"id":8881,"date":"2019-10-12T18:51:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T01:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=8881"},"modified":"2019-10-12T18:51:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T01:51:56","slug":"suffering-and-gods-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=8881","title":{"rendered":"Suffering and God\u2019s Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

28th<\/sup> Sunday of the Ordinary\nTime<\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 13, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke 17:11-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suffering, sickness, and death do\nnot care whether you are Jews or Samaritans, whether you are rich or poor,\nwhether you are old or young. When it strikes, it strikes. In time of Jesus,\nleprosy or Hansen\u2019s disease was still one of most dreadful sicknesses. It ate you\nyour skin and made you ugly. It is highly contagious, and thus, cut you from\nyour community. It was incurable and thus brought you a slow and agonizing\ndeath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is true, and we thank God,\nthat leprosy is now curable, humanity continues to battle with deadly diseases\nthat bring untold suffering and death. When I was still in a brother in the\nformation, he was assigned to the hospital in Manila to be a chaplain. My duty\nwas to accompany those people who were struggling with terrible sickness. Some were\nbattling cancers and they had to endure painful chemotherapy. Some were having\nkidney failures and had to patiently undergo hemodialysis. Some were helpless\nvictims of HIV and had to bear various complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never forgot to meet one young man\nin that hospital. We just call him John. He was a new college graduate, and he\nhad high hopes for his future life. Yet, all were changed when just several\nweeks after his graduation, he was diagnosed with cancer, stage 3. Thus, to survive\nhe must take up severe medication like surgery and chemotherapy. In the hospital,\nI learned how painful chemotherapy was and there was no assurance that the treatment\nwould succeed. In fact, it may destroy the body in the process. He lost his hair,\nhe lost his appetite, and every time he tried to eat, he would throw up. He became\nterribly weak and sickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, I decided to visit him and had\na little chat. I was expecting a very depressing case, but to my surprise, he\nsaid that he was doing fine and in fact grateful. Initially, I thought the\nmedication was working, but it was not really the case. I was confused with his\nanswer. In dealing with patients with grave sickness, the chaplains were told\nabout the five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and\nacceptance. Nowhere in the process, a sick person will be grateful. Yet, John\nwas thankful for his condition. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I asked further, I heard an unforgettable\nanswer. He said that in his sickness and suffering, he discovered what is truly\nimportant and indispensable in his life. He learned how the love of his parents\nmade his life more meaningful. He saw how God has given life that is simple and\nyet totally free. A very breath, a very heartbeat, a very memory is precious\ngift from God. He cannot but be grateful for simple blessings from God, despite\nhis deadly sickness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John teaches me that suffering is\nsometimes God\u2019s way to remind us to discover what is truly essential in our\nlife. When we are suffering, we realize our beautiful bodies are no longer important,\nour richness is empty, and our ambitions are just like passing air. We thank\nthe Lord that we are not suffering like John, but we do not have to wait until\nwe get sick, to find the essentials. The time is now and the place is here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28th Sunday of the Ordinary Time October 13, 2019 Luke 17:11-19 Suffering, sickness, and death do not care whether you are Jews or Samaritans, whether you are rich or poor, whether you are old or young. When it strikes, it strikes. In time of Jesus, leprosy or Hansen\u2019s disease was still one of most dreadful sicknesses. It ate you your skin and made you ugly. It is highly contagious, and thus, cut you from your community. It was incurable and…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-8881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8882,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8881\/revisions\/8882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}