I’m afraid I don’t have time to sift through all of his writings on suffering, but if you have in mind the relevant quote by him of it, I’d be happy to go by it.
I think you are talking about a different issue though. The ordinary care vs. extraordinary means distinction is usually applied to end of life issues, not what we’re talking about now.
What type of suffering exactly then is it that you say must be relieved, as a moral obligation, if we come under? Would you agree that this at least is often not the case? That there is honor in the acceptance of suffering, even if it may be remedied?
Mystical theology is very clear on suffering. It bases its truths on the lives of the mystics from the OT to today. The mystics accepted suffering that was the Will of God. This is an act of obedience and of love.
However, suffering was not simply accepted without trying to alleviate it. For example, Francis of Assisi, whom the Church has called the Perfect Christian, underwent several procedures to restore his vision, all of which failed. When they failed, he accepted the outcome as God’s will.
Teresa of Avila had cancer. She too underwent several medical interventions. She was cured the first time around and embarked on her reform of the Carmelite Order. The second time around, the treatments were unsuccessful and she accepted the results as God’s will. She did of cancer.
Pope John Paul II underwent numerous medical interventions for different problems. This is public knowledge. He accepted the results as God’s will. In his case, the interesting thing was when he could no longer speak he said that it would be best if he died. Shortly thereafter, he did, within months. But while he was alive he offered this suffering to God for the Church.
Mother Teresa underwent extensive and expensive medical intervention through her later years. She accepted the outcome as God’s will.
So did St. Teresa of the Andes and hundreds of other mystics and saints.
The point is that one does not stand by and let the body suffer, even a cold, without intervention. One acts in defence of the body. The virtuous path is to accept the outcome as the will of God, without murmuring, without complaints and without despairing of God’s mercy. What makes a Christian a saint is not suffering, but how he or she deals with suffering. All of the saints knew that they had to accept intervention for their physical ailments. They did not like the attention, but they accepted the intervention as part of obedience and humility.
Even the simple act of taking a Tylenol for a headache can be a virtuous act of humility. The soul accepts that life is finite and that suffering is part of life. It responds to the headache with great humility, because it reminds us that we are finite creatures and without assistance we are nothing. The act of denying ourselves a Tylenol to relieve a headache to practice virtue is really spiritual pride, just the opposite of what we want to achieve. We want to achieve humility. To achieve humility we must accept that we are fragile creatures. We must accept the help that God has placed at our disposals with gratitude and recognition of our dependence on others and God. We bow to our physical ailments because they remind us of our poverty before God.
True holiness is not about suffering. True holiness is about humility. Sometimes, humility requires that we accept suffering, but it never demands that we impose suffering on us or others to show how sinful we are.
Even those of us who are in vows do not starve ourselves when we fast or injure our bodies when we do physical penance. In fact, all of the Holy Rules in the Church forbid such practices: Augustinian, Carmelite, Franciscan, Basilian, and Benedictine.
There have been cases and times when people ignored the warnings of the holy founders of religious families. They paid the price. They did not reach sanctity. They often turned to heretics, because they adopted an attitude of superiority to others and to the Church.
We have to be very careful how we interpret physical suffering. The best interpretation of Paul’s theology of suffering is found in the teachings and life of Francis of Assisi. I would strongly recommend that you read Master and Disciple by St. Bonaventure and the Writings of Francis and Clare by Regis Armstrong, OFM, Cap.
Fraternally,
JR
PS Since we have gotten off track with the thread, I would be happy to continue this conversation via PM, if you are agreable to it.
Brother JR
I don’t think that’s what the Church means by mortification. She talking about less dangerous things such as fasting, abstinence, extra work, silence instead of TV, internet, video games, etc, extra time your knees in prayer (unless you have some kind of bone or muscle problem that would be aggravated).