By JIM NICHOLS

One of the charming results of our religious plurality is that different groups have varied emphases and include traditions that can surprise someone from another group. Once I was to speak for a group different from my own and I intended to begin my comments as I often do by quoting from Psalm 118:24. I began by saying, “This is the day that the Lord has made, . . .” As I paused before continuing the sentence, the whole congregation finished the verse with “. . . let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Clearly, they had been trained in that verse and were accustomed to repeating it together. It was great, although it threw me off my game momentarily.

Although I treasure that passage and believe it, the human experiences I have had and see around me cause me to struggle with its truth. Several years ago, I heard a presentation by a brave young husband and father whose five-year-old had just died. That is an experience that neither I nor most of you have had because it is an unusual one. There are other experiences, however, that are much more common; they are almost inevitable. Specifically, I am considering aging and the accompanying blessings and sufferings. Despite the clear blessings that can come from the aging experiences, we cannot minimize the true suffering and weaknesses that accompany them. Yet, the Psalmist says we should be “glad” today and every day.

This is, of course, the topic of human concern by thoughtful people in every generation. However, thinking about it does not remove it from our lives. Understanding the folly of simplistic responses, I suggest here two attempts to “re-frame” the issue. Perhaps something here will make sense to you.

Remember an older person (or a set of them) in your life who has blessed or enriched you. How did that person do that? What did they do or not do? Say or not say? Think or not think? Believe or not believe?

That person may have been able to implement these skills:

1. She or he understood that suffering is not an unknown item for God. Certainly, Jesus was a healer, but he was also a sufferer. I presume as a human he had the same physical maladies we have and, though he did not get “old,” he suffered physically greatly at his death. We cannot comprehend the redemptive suffering aspects of his love, but we can make a case that our eternal life is directly connected to his suffering. It is the ultimate illustration that good can come from suffering. 
2. Our model for being “glad” also may have had a clear view of the importance of the community—how we help one another. This drags us quickly into Matthew 25 and we soak up the power of those words. There are two sub-pieces to consider here.

In the context of aiding one another, we note that the aid is a temporary fix. If you give water to someone, they get thirsty again. If they are lonely and you visit, they will get lonely again later. Our inclination when we see suffering is to try to remedy it but, frankly, our attempts to do that do not make the suffering disappear. What our attempts do, however, is include us in another’s suffering; we are now affected by it in a face-to-face manner. This is a positive for us.

The teaching in Matthew 25 also says that helping one another in any way is equivalent to helping him, Jesus himself. He does not say that it makes the suffering go away never to return. He does not say visiting someone old who cannot see well and has lost her strength to walk—that your visit will improve her sight or improve her mobility. He simply says aiding her is equivalent to aiding him. 

We need to be consistent in trying to be present with one another as life unfolds. Henri Nouwen wrote “We are all healers who can reach out and offer health and we are all patients in constant need of help.”

Our faith includes the promise that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospice chaplain