Asphysicians/surgeons, we cannot “understand” (on a metaphysical level) why
people suffer or die. Despite our advanced training in modern technological
advances on the frontiers of immunology, gene therapy or minimally invasive
surgical techniques, individually we remain steadfastly and unchangingly human,
and often struggle with both anguish and misery in the lives of patients and
families we serve (as well as our own). We also wrestle with questions like,
“How can a loving and all-powerful God permit the suffering of an innocent
child from an aggressive cancer?” In my career as a pediatric surgeon, I have
often been asked similar questions from grieving parents whose lives have suddenly
imploded with the shattering news of their child’s affliction. They- and I as
well- seek through the tears, some reassurance in our faith that begs answers,
even understanding, of the unknowable.
Can it be thatadvances in modern science and technology have made the concept of “suffering”
itself a kind of “predictable storm,” at least for the most part- one which
should be seen off in the horizon to be safely avoided, or at least prepared
for well in advance; or one that attacks in distant places, to unseen
populations- safely at a distance from our “all too comfortable” lives. At
least until we, or those close to us, are suddenly blindsided- by a terrible
accident or critical health concern, and are left asking, “Why me (them)? What
on earth could have happened? How could this be? This is just so sudden and
unexpected”. Furthermore, “It just doesn’t seem fair. Isn’t our God a deity of
love? Surely it cannot be his wish that such misery could happen to an
undeserving child of his. Isn’t his plan to protect and nurture (each of) us so
we can carry on with our daily lives in obedience and service to him? How did
everything we believe go wrong”?
In reality, in our
human existence, that anguish and misery we struggle to understand are
necessary parts of life, unavoidable and oftentimes painfully real- and always
have been.
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