Love and Suffering: An Unlikely Partnership

A simple reflection on Holy week and Passover.

God’s will is beyond our reasoning. Many times, God’s will just doesn't make any sense. Strangely that's love though. Love often doesn't make any sense. This isn’t a bad thing because often the best things in life are forged in the furnace of pain and loss. Philosopher Thomas Aquinas wrote, “to love is to will the good of another.” If we as Christians and Jews believe in a loving, heavenly father, then suffering makes some sense since God has our best intentions at heart. However, if we don’t believe in a loving God, suffering can seem purposelessly cruel, stupid and pointless. We all need to love more, but more importantly we need to encounter and experience it.  True Love is not just words. True love is not just a feeling, a passing hunch, a hormonal, chemical reaction. True love is the type that brings out the best, most heroic parts of our being.  True love is ultimately sacrificial.  A dying, but a rebirth of our truest selves.