Mark 10:35-45
In the divine dispensation, suffering plays a critical role. The reading from Isaiah tells us "through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear." The suffering of the man Jesus the Christ achieved redemption for all.
Suffering is indispensable to human liberation.
John Eldridge writes in "The Journey of Desire"
Simone Weil was right; there are only two things that pierce the human heart: beauty and affliction. Moments we wish would last forever and moments we wish had never begun.
Human death often has suffering as an inevitable attendant. Often the question is asked, How come such a person, who in his or her life was so good and so gentle, have to face this full measure of suffering at the end? Or, he or she suffered so much in the rest of life, why this final blow of suffering before death?
As a society, we fear, shun, and deny Death. We pretend that suffering has no place in our midst -- and run to the doctor, the medicine cabinet, or the drug dealer to maintain this illusion.
When faced with the final passage and the accompanying suffering, we feel helpless and angry when even the doctor has no answer, when all that remains is confronting the suffering of the person we love. We utilize morphine to dull the pain, but it does not take away the necessity of suffering. Often, the way we fall into the arms of the ultimate in liberation and healing that is Death is to we travel through the door of suffering.
Consequently, our society cheats itself of the opportunity for human liberation and stifles the efforts of the oppressed to achieve liberation.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells his followers that lording it over others through power and exercise of authority is not the way to follow his example. He tells "the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life for the ransom of many."
Is the suffering we bear is act of service? Maybe the suffering we keep vigil to at the deathbed of our beloved is a ransom for them, for us, and for others.