Reflection on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Mary and Joseph stand before Simeon who holds and blesses their infant son. Then he turns to Mary and tells her that her heart will be pierced with a sword of sorrow. Mary ponders his words, wondering what this will mean for the future. 

Brad, age 2, tells his mother often that his head hurts. Three weeks later, she and her husband sit facing the doctor whose words will pierce their hearts. Brad has brain cancer and his chances for survival are 40 percent. The doctor advises contacting St. Jude’s.

A Sudanese woman sits outside her makeshift tent with her dying daughter on her lap. She has no food, no water, no medical help and can only wait for her child to die of starvation. Her husband has been abducted, and she has no one to turn to for help. She prays that she, too, will die.

A young couple in Gaza finds a little shelter among the rubble of their hometown where she is about to deliver their first child. Twenty days later they are burying their infant, and their joy has turned into grief. Their child has frozen to death. 

I was 12 years old when three of my cousins, all around my age, were killed in a train-car accident. I often ask myself how their parents managed to move on to normal lives again. In some ways they never did; my aunt had nightmares during which she would scream out for the rest of her life.

These are the images that came to mind as I read today’s Gospel. How do parents survive such tragedies? How does anyone survive when faced with suffering and death whether personal or in a loved one? Does suffering serve any purpose? 

Over the years I have heard various reasons given for why we suffer:

We were put on earth to suffer so we could earn heaven. 

Suffering is God’s punishment for sin. 

Jesus had to suffer and in allegiance to him we must suffer, too. 

God tests our faith through suffering. 

Our first parents passed sin and suffering on to us by their disobedience. 

Suffering is not God’s fault. We create it for ourselves through adherence to white supremacy, racism, discrimination, wealth, power, materialism and so on. We use up all our environmental resources without concern for the needs of others. We continue to build weapons of mass destruction. We put ourselves before the needs of others.

On the other hand, we use our intelligence and creativity to do good – medical advances, improved communication methods, regenerative farming; mixed in with the indifference is a lot of good. 

Watching others suffer, whether on TV or in person, can make us feel powerless, which is no solution, but then I ask myself what can I do about Gaza, starvation in Sudan or gangs in Haiti, here in my snug little home in Kentucky? How can I stop drug-trafficking in South America or human trafficking right here in the U.S.? I can’t!

Henri Nouwen shares his wisdom about suffering with us when he writes, “All of this can make us feel helpless and hopeless which isn’t helpful. The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralyzed with feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation, to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one of their many victims.”

We do what we can – the little things he talks about – phone calls, letters, protests or prayer. We stand at the foot of the cross with Mary holding suffering people in our hearts. We trust that in spite of all the bad things we hear about, with our small actions we are still building the kingdom of God on earth and that our God walks with us every step of the way. O Suffering Jesus! O Sorrowful Mary! We give you glory, thanks and praise; O bless our works and guide our ways.