Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
(John 15:1-8)
Few people want to suffer. Suffering is unnatural and evil. Our bodies revolt at the proximity of pain. There are, no doubt, one or two who seek suffering per se. We term this behavior masochism and rightly see it as abnormal and harmful. Yet suffering may be accepted for a concomitant good. A cancer patient undergoes chemotherapy for this reason. Even when the benefit sought is not self-evident as the decrease in the size of a tumor or the amputation of a leg to save a life, suffering may occasion a benefit. Cardinal Avery Dulles, one of the Church’s great theologians, is suffering from increasing paralysis of limbs and mouth. He does not rail against the trouble. Rather he says, paraphrasing St. Paul, “I know that (Christ’s) power can be made perfect in infirmity.”
In today’s gospel Jesus indicates how suffering can lead to a positive outcome. He tells his disciples that the Father prunes productive branches so that they might yield more fruit. Of course, his metaphorical language describes the good that Christians do with the help of divine grace. Pruning is the invasive cutting back of superfluous branches that makes the remaining ones heartier. It implies suffering, but the end result obliterates suffering’s evil dimensions. Like the case of Cardinal Dulles, Christ’s power is being perfected.
All of us suffer slight setbacks if not major traumas. Perhaps our best efforts are criticized as unworthy or an illness causes us to miss an opportunity we have been counting on. Perhaps a close friend has died or we cannot afford central air-conditioning in hundred degree heat. Rather than consider these conditions as bad luck, punishment for past wrongs, or the triumph of evil, we should think of them for what they likely are – God’s pruning us of excess so that we might render more abundant fruit.
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