When Life gives one a Bitter Taste

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Introduction: I read about the Humane AI that is projected to replace the mobile phone. With this, a pin device is pinned to one’s jacket and then one will do all the things done on the smartphone by talking to it, pressing the pinned device, and turning one’s hand in various directions. It’s amazing what AI technology is offering humanity. One wonders about the future, and what the next few years will be like for us with the rate and speed this technology is advancing and developing.

 

So that got me thinking that the fastest and easiest answer to the question posed by our topic would be to call AI. This means that when life beats one down, one should just call the AI. Yes, this may seem like a bad joke, but we might get to that stage soon. In any case, the truth is that the AI can know a lot about us but not everything.

 

He who created us still knows more about us, and thus the truth our creator has revealed to us is ultimately where we go to find answers to ultimate and intimate life questions. Meanwhile, with AI, certain things are still projections and not actual realities. Again, the sphere of life issues like sin, suffering, moral decisions, inner joy and peace, mercy, justice, etc., should certainly be over and above what the AI should be concerned with. So, let us look at what invitation is being offered to a Christian who is created in the image and likeness of God when life gives him/her a bitter taste. 

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Let's start with a general overview.

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-Nature: By bitter tastes, we think of life’s harsh and bitter realities, unfairness and isolations in life, unpredictability of life, brutality of work, sickness and mortality, broken and truncated human relationships, cruel truths of dishonesty in trusted relationships, and all other adverse situations and circumstances. And as all this entails suffering, no one ordinarily enjoys bitter situations, but the truism is that no one can escape them. Everyone does certainly experience them.

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-Sources: The bitter tastes we suffer are what God allows. If endured well, they bring us closer to our full potential and to the desires of our heart. These bitter experiences come from human experiences of evil, personal choices, retributive justice, mortification, and nature (Mk4:37). We know the reality of pain for all (cf. Wis 3:1-6; Isa 25:6), and that pain and “death came into the world through sin” (Rom 5:12). Even Jesus himself made it a condition for his followers: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). However, these bitter experiences seem to be clear invitations calling for some responses including the following.

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+ The Invitation to take stock: For one, when we meet a bad turn on the road of life, it is an invitation to take stock of our journey so far, and to consider our part directly or indirectly in that existing situation, as St. Paul asks us to do when he said: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in faith. Test yourselves...” (2 Cor 13:5). Again, this examination is important since a problem known is a problem half solved. Then, we can address an adequate and proper response to the situation. 

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+ Time to acknowledge our weakness: As with St Paul, we are weak. But, as with St. Paul, when we are weak, the power of God is strong in our weakness (cf. 2 Cor 12:7-10). There is a freedom that comes when one recognizes and accepts one’s weakness and limitations, in the sense of one’s embrace of one’s position as a beloved child of God. This is an invitation to trust God and do his will and stop relying solely on one’s own strength, in order that God’s power manifests fully in one’s gifts. As we read: “…all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.” (Ezk 17:22-24)

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+ Opportunity of worship: As seen with those who suffer in the Bible, bitter tastes invite us to worship God. For instance, when Job’s bitter taste came, he arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped, saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:20-22). And St Paul exhorted: “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Thess 5:18). Thus, we give thanks for having been counted worthy to suffer for Christ: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.” (Col 1:24).

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+ We learn how to encourage others: We read: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow” (2 Cor 1:3-5).

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+ We learn of God’s justice: God's justice allows what we would call "bitter tastes." For instance, Amos spoke of God’s justice that would befall the people of Israel for not appreciating their redemption from Egypt, as summed in the early verses thus: “Hear this word, Israelites, that the Lord speaks concerning you, concerning the whole family I brought up from the land of Egypt. You alone I have known among all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:1-2).

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+ It’s allowed for good: We believe that when God allows us to suffer, He is doing so to protect us from a greater evil, or to lift us to a far greater and outweighing good. For, “Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life.” (CCC 324). For this reason, St. James exhorts: “Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (Jam 1:2-4).

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+ We learn Christ’s example regarding suffering: We look to Christ’s example (1 Pt 2:21-24), who, though innocent suffered for us to demonstrate to us both the magnitude of our sin and the greater magnitude of His infinite love for us. He received the cup of suffering from His Father, in humble obedience, and in doing so perfectly demonstrated His love for the Father, as he said, “Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?” (Jn 18:11). We too focus on Jesus at such a time.

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+ Time to build our faith: We do not move by sight but by faith (cf. 2 Cor 5:7), “Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal…if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.” (2 Cor 4:16-5:1). As it is, “Faith gives us the certainty that God would not permit an evil if he did not cause a good to come from that very evil, by ways that we shall fully know only in eternal life” (CCC 324). “Without the vision of faith, one has a sense of the uselessness of suffering.” (St. JP II, Salvifici Doloris, 1).

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+ We complete the Cross of Christ. St Paul noted: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24). St. John Paul II noted that in suffering we receive a sliver of the Cross. Our suffering matters because Christ’s suffering matters and we are his body. All we have to do is to give our suffering to God to use. Nothing given to God is ever wasted. As St Pius XII says: “Because Christ the Head holds such an eminent position, one must not think that he does not require the help of the Body”. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, 44).

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+ Time to Counter the Devil. The devil is annoyed at the progress of God’s children and throws in all kinds of obstacles to their well-being, like the woman about to give birth to a child whom the dragon was waiting to destroy (cf. Rev 12:1-6). Do not lose focus as Adam & Eve did during their confrontation with evil (cf. Gen 3:9-15), for God will send his angels to war against the devil (cf. Dan 12:1; Rev 12:7-9).

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+ Talk to someone: While on earth, Jesus sent out his disciples to towns and villages to proclaim the kingdom of God (Matt 10:1-15), and at the end of the gospels he commissioned them to witness to the good news and bring about his kingdom (Mk 16:15-18). So, to talk to others is always helpful, for God’s healing and blessing can come through others. We are his instrument to help others (cf. Mk 6:37). Moreover, in encountering others, we might come face to face with those whose bitter tastes are quite heavier compared to ours (cf. 1 Pet 5:8-10), as experienced by one complaining about a shoe until he saw one without legs.

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+ Hope in God and in Christ's final return. In the end, one’s response is to hope in God, knowing that “Hope that sees for itself is not hope” (Rom 8:24,25). It is the foundation and sum of what we can do, as St Peter exhorts: “Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pt 1:13). We pray and hope remembering that “We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:8-9). For “they that hope in the Lord will renew their strength…” (Isa 40:31). For, “…even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me...Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the Lord for endless days” (Ps 23). This is the hope described by St Aquinas as that which ‘…attains God by leaning on His help in order to obtain the hoped for good…Such a good is eternal life, which consists in the enjoyment of God Himself. For we should hope from Him for nothing less than Himself, since His goodness, whereby He imparts good things to His creatures, is no less than His Essence. Therefore, the proper and principal object of hope is eternal happiness” (Aquinas, S. T., II-II, Q.17, a.2). --Fr. Francis Chukwuma