The Good News about suffering

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

THE fact that Christ immediately talked about his impending passion and death after being rightly identified by Peter as the “the Christ” (cfr. Mk 8,27-33) tells us that suffering and death, which are unavoidable in our life here on earth, are actually good news to all of us. If understood and experienced properly, they identify us with Christ and attain for us our own eternal salvation.

This gospel episode, of course, tells us that if we truly follow Christ, then like him, we should not only expect suffering and death but also welcome them. That’s because in the first place we cannot avoid suffering and death in this life, no matter how much we try. But more importantly, if we have the same attitude Christ had toward his suffering and death, we know that our own would have a positive and redemptive value.

This is what Christian suffering and death is all about. It is a consequence of all our sins but is now converted into a means of our salvation, that is, if we suffer and die with Christ.

We need to understand this basic truth of our faith so that we can avoid suffering unduly or suffering more than we ought. In other words, this truth of our faith enables us to suffer and die properly.

We all need to be reminded that all our suffering has a positive and favorable aspect. It’s not all entirely bad and negative, though in itself it will always be bad. But if viewed and lived through our Christian faith, that is, with Christ, there is something in it that can give us a greater good. 

Our pains and suffering are always the result of sin, ours and those of others. They are the necessary consequence of our separation, whether temporary or permanent, from God from whom all good things come. (cfr. Ps 16,2; James 1,17) We may not be the direct cause of our own suffering, but in this world, we cannot escape the effects of sin, and so we must be ready for them just the same.

We have to remind ourselves that we are not meant to suffer. Our original as well as our ideal definitive state in heaven excludes suffering. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were in the state of original justice, where everything was in order and in harmony. No pain and suffering touched them, until they fell into sin.

We have to remind everyone that when we suffer, we should see to it that we avoid suffering by our own lonesome. That would make our suffering, whatever may be its cause, whether it is self-inflicted or caused by others, a useless and purely negative event.

Truth is our suffering can have tremendous meaning and positive effect on us if we go through it always with Christ. If we go by our Christian faith, we are sure that Christ is ever willing to suffer for us and with us, and to convert our suffering into the very means of our salvation, in fact.

There is no human suffering that Christ is not willing to make also as his own. And he does it because he loves us, he wants to save us, he wants to bring us back to him. Let’s remember that his love is first of all gratuitous. He loves us first before we can learn to love him in return. 

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

The joy of Advent

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          THAT’S what the main theme of the 3rd Sunday of Advent

reminds us of. There is joy in this season of Advent even as we

prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ with practices of penance

that are proper to this season.

          The 3rd Sunday of Advent is also called the “Gaudete”

Sunday. The expression comes from the entrance antiphon of the Mass

that cites some words of St. Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again

I say, rejoice! The Lord is near.” (Phil 4,4)

          It’s important that we don’t lose sight of our need for joy

even as we go through the exercise of penance which is what is called

for in this season of Advent. And that’s because, as St. Paul said,

the Lord is near. This piece of news should gladden our heart even as

we intensify our penitential acts to prepare ourselves properly to

receive him.

          This Good News, which with faith we can consider as already

done, should remind us of the bigger picture about ourselves. We come

from God and not just from our parents. We are meant to be with God in

our definitive state of life in eternity. Our life here on earth is

simply a training and testing ground to see if what God wants us to be

is also what we want to be.

          Joy is the ideal condition for us to be in while we are here

on earth. Yes, even when we encounter difficulties and all the

negative things in life, we can and should try to live in joy, but

understanding it as a joy in and with Christ. Especially in these

pandemic times, we should avoid feeling sad, empty, helpless, or

feeling overwhelmed.

          This was what Christ promised to give us if we are united to

him, like a branch to the vine. “If you keep my commands, you will

remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain

in his love,” he said. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in

you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15,10-11)

          With these words, we are clearly told where our true and

complete joy will come from. It’s from Christ, from God, and not just

from some earthly and temporal source. It’s a joy that we can always

have in any season or weather, fair or foul. It’s a joy that

transcends whatever earthly and temporal condition we may be in.

Whether we are up or down, successful or defeated and lost, we can

still have that joy.

          We need to work out our true union with Christ to have this

kind of joy. To be sure, Christ is already with us. We should just be

with him. And it’s not difficult to be with Christ, because he is

already with us always. Being the pattern of our humanity, the savior

of our damaged humanity, he cannot be absent from us. It’s rather us

who can dare to ignore and resist him. We have to be wary of that

tendency and do something about it.

          For this, we really have to activate our faith that, if

lived well, can always give us hope, in spite of the tragedies that we

can encounter in life. Faith lived well also gives us the ability to

love everybody, whatever the conditions may be. A faith-based love

makes everything beautiful and lovable, even if by worldly standards

things are bad and ugly. This is what makes us live in joy despite

whatever!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Looking for bad news or 'doom scrolling'

 Since the beginning of the pandemic, I keep on scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I find myself in bed at night scrolling news sites and knowing this is not healthy for me… so why am I doing this?” Easy to explain: I am looking for (somehow) good news.

It’s a question many doom scrollers have been asking themselves. There are multiple reasons why the urge to read may be so strong: the feeling of safety in knowledge, especially during difficult times; the design of social-media platforms that constantly refresh and boost the loudest voices; and, of course, the human fascination aspect.

Beyond knowing intuitively that doom scrolling makes us feel awful, studies conducted during the pandemic have corroborated this, linking both anxiety and depression to the consumption of Covid-19 related media and increased time spent on smartphones. So, why do we keep endlessly scrolling ­– and why can the practice feel oddly soothing? And could there actually be surprising upsides to keeping our eyes locked on our feeds?

“The precursor to going online was that people would watch the 11 o’clock news, [which] was terrifying,” says Dean McKay, a Fordham University psychology professor who specialises in compulsive behaviour and anxiety disorders. That terror, when witnessed from the comfort of the viewer’s home, however, had a potentially calming effect. McKay describes the attitude as people acknowledging “things are pretty horrible, [but] I’m comfortable, so I'm going to be able to sleep well tonight knowing that [I can feel good about] my station in life”.

McKay suggests doom scrolling could be a “modern equivalent”. But, unlike the 2300 news, it doesn’t stop at a fixed hour. During the uniquely uncertain and scary times of 2020, it’s no surprise that people like Bernstein scrolled well into the night. They needed information – at first because little was available about the virus, and then because they got sucked into the never-ending news cycle about it.

As Pamela Rutledge, director of the California-based Media Psychology Research Center, puts it, doom scrolling “really just describes the compulsive need to try and get answers when we’re afraid”.  After all, we do have to assess whether new information constitutes a threat. “We are biologically driven to attend to that,” says Rutledge.

Doom scrolling really just describes the compulsive need to try and get answers when we’re afraid.

“Unfortunately, journalism to some degree plays to that tendency,” she adds. Provocative headlines and stories draw in readers because they elicit fear and urgency. “There’s a sense of, if I know all the latest news, I can better protect myself and my family.” Pamela Rutledge, I strongly agree with you!

Anyway, I am still looking for "somehow" good news to write about. Maybe, I'll be getting a chance in the near future.