God’s Liberating Love
Palm Sunday
Reflection By Deborah Woolsey
You must be a world unto yourself and with your difficult thing in your center, drawing you to it. And one day, with its weight, its gravity, it will have its effects beyond you, on a destiny, on a person, on God. Then, when it’s ready, God will enter into your difficult thing. And do you know anywhere else where you and God can meet?
- Rainer Maria Rilke
For years people of all walks of life have asked the question: “Why is there suffering?” Societies, individuals, institutions, religions, academic, and scientific disciplines have all attempted to give an answer. Most often suffering is perceived as punishment for bad behavior or the consequence of bad choices.
One of the Latin definitions for passio means suffering and com means with. Today, on Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, the church turns to Jesus for God’s response to the question. As we witness Jesus going through the excruciating suffering of the betrayal and abandonment of his friends, a mockery of a trial, physical violence, and death, we are not given a reason for the why of suffering, we are given a who, someone who loves all of humanity so much they are willing to suffer with us. Jesus does not show us an angry god who desires punishment. He shows us a God who loves us so much that God is willing to suffer with us.
This response is empowering and helpful for me because it liberates me from the shame of judgment and helps me accept suffering as part of life. It also helps me to discern the difference between redemptive and non-redemptive suffering. For example, when I was recovering from two hip replacement surgeries, I went through a long and difficult recovery period. Seeing that time through the lens of Jesus suffering with me helped me recognize and receive the compassion offered by my caregivers, family, and friends who were able to be with me physically, mentally, and spiritually. It also helped me respond compassionately to the medical caregivers who were suffering stress exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. By caring for each other we were able to alleviate both our burdens. Even though it might persist, this type of suffering doesn’t last forever. It will change, things will get better, even if slowly, and we simply need to keep going, which we can do because we know we are not alone. That is what makes it redemptive, and it is just as true for the other types of suffering that also offer hope for healing change.
However, there are other forms of suffering that do not have a light at the end of the tunnel. Non-redemptive suffering happens when we get stuck in a toxic situation, such as an abusive workplace, school, relationship, any place where there is no compassion and no hope of change. In those circumstances, sometimes the best and most compassionate thing we can do is to distance ourselves from it.
By suffering with us, Jesus embodies how God’s love truly is liberating and life-giving. Knowing this, when we suffer we are better able to recognize God’s freeing love and, from this place of healing and returning wholeness, be more compassionate with ourselves and others.