A Lesson About Pain and Prayer

While not a daily occurrence, the work day can bring its share of pain from time to time. It might simply be because we're feeling ill, or have an injury. Despite this, we show up and put in a full day's labor. We work through the pain. 

Or it could be that our particular job isn't the greatest, or maybe the folks we work for leave much to be desired. The strain of working under less than ideal conditions, for difficult people can quickly devolve into real pain if we must endure those conditions and people for an extended period of time. 

I've had jobs and worked for people who caused me to dread my work. Fortunately they've been few and far between. But I've known people to work under enormous strain for long stretches. You can see the pain etched in their faces. Sometimes you can hear it in their voices. It's a situation none of us wants, but some of us have had to endure.

If you've been in this situation, or maybe are in something like it now, you've likely prayed and prayed hard for some relief. None of us - even the greatest saints - wants to endure pain and suffering. We may sincerely pray "Thy Will be done," but even Our Lord, in the Garden, asked His Father to take away the suffering He knew He would endure - if it be God's Will.

St. Augustine may have some words of comfort and encouragement. His words are quoted in an entry in The Inner Life of the Soul. He explains how pain can frequently lead to greater joy.

" Everywhere," as St. Augustine teaches, " everywhere the greater joy is ushered in by the greater pain." The eternal rest that fulfills desire comes after the long struggle, the continued supplication, the dire distress.  

Of course, he's talking about the greater joy of Heaven. Before you dismiss this, let it sink in.

While we may pray for relief from pain - and sometimes obtain it - that's not always the case. But what is always the case is the greater joy - assuming we die in a state of grace.

St. Augustine was a holy genius. But it's likely he learned this lesson of patience not just from study and cogitation. He could simply observe his dear mother - over many, many years.

Before ever Augustine, with all his knowledge, had learned the lessons of heavenly patience and the art of hoping against hope, there was one who was hoping for him, having patience with him, waiting for him, when all human hope seemed gone ; and whose name stands uplifted in the Church, that men may call upon it, and take courage to pray unceasingly to God for the salvation of immortal souls. For seventeen years Augustine's mother, Monica, prayed for her husband's conversion, and seventeen more for her wayward and sinning son. In both cases the prayer was granted ; God gave her her heart's desire, and did not deny her the request of her lips. But who shall attempt to describe the anguish, or who shall number the petitions, the penances, the tears, who shall estimate the value of that undying patience of a woman's love, that won at last from God the prize she sought? And who can think without shuddering of the depth of that dark gulf, beside which she had to walk year after year in ever increasing misery, yet ever calling upon God through everything : " Though Thou slay me, yet will I trust in Thee ! " 

She saw her son, once enrolled as a Christian catechumen, embrace heresy, teach it, use his wonderful influence over men's minds to pervert and enslave them ; she beheld him an open and proud apostate ; and she knew that he lived, moreover, in open and shameless sin. " O my God J " exclaims her son, that child of too many tears ever to be lost, " O my God ! if I had died then, where would have been my soul ? But I was preserved by my mother's prayers. Never can I describe what her love for me was. ... If I did not long ago perish in sin and misery, it is because of the long and faithful tears with which she pleaded for me."

My own mother died almost 20 years ago. But I know there were times she prayed for me when she sensed distress or difficulty in my life. Even now, I suspect - I hope - her prayers continue. She had much pain in her life, yet she prayed for me whenever she saw pain in mine. 

And, as we saw last time, we all have a Mother - Mary - who prays for us, especially in times of distress and pain. 

That makes three mothers pulling for us, praying for us if we're suffering from pain today at work: St. Monica, our own mother, and dear Mother Mary. Even if our pain may persists, a mother's care and concern will help us bear it.