Feeling angry or hopeless because of suffering and tribulation?

Look to Jesus on the Cross, said Catholic writer Charles Lewis.

“Say, ‘okay, what was He telling us from there?’ He certainly wasn’t telling us ‘look how happy I am up here.’ He suffered, and He suffered for us. We have to believe in Him, and that our suffering will take us on the Cross with Him.

“On the other side of the Cross is Heaven.”

A painful spinal ailment forced Lewis to retire from his job as a religion and ethics reporter at the National Post. Since 2017, the 74-year-old has endured the chronic affliction of cancerous tumours.

Lewis will share how his faith has comforted and strengthened him amid his trials during an April 9 webinar hosted by the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute (CCBI) titled Religious and Spiritual Aspects of Suffering.

CCBI executive director Moira McQueen will host this free online discussion from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EST that also features the insights of Dr. Ann Sirek.

After devoting many years to practising medicine as a diabetologist, Sirek felt called to examine suffering through a spiritual lens. She closely studied the writings of Thomas Aquinas and other theologians, notably Dorothy Sölle from Germany. In 2020, she authored Visceral Resonance: A Theological Essay on Attending the Sufferer.

Sirek’s doctoral thesis in book form draws from Sölle’s scholarship about how individuals who are suffering can transform “from the identity of a victim to an identity of agency.” She also draws from Aquinas’ views about the passions — what some call emotions — that affect our sensory reality such as fear, anger and sorrow.

While it is tempting to sweep these passions under the rug, Sirek said her thesis argues that there is a necessity to being attuned with and embracing every aspect of our human experience.

“What I was able to do with the help of my reading of Aquinas on the passions is show what a narrative of resilience would look like or might look like if one were to embrace these darknesses,” said Sirek. “(One would not) embrace it so much as sin but hurt that I have undergone and that once I've undergone hurt, I can also spread hurt to other people. I use the word ‘hurt’ so that we can approach hurt without the overlay of guilt.

“I think it's really important to be able to take our narrative to the God of our prayers and just open ourselves: show God the narrative, show God where it hurts. I think that's a very important part of resilience.”

McQueen told The Catholic Register she hopes the webinar does help people navigate the existential aspect of suffering — spiritual and emotional turmoil.

“I think the objective is to help people see, and granted, this works very well for people of faith, especially, that they can not only deal with this type of pain, which happens to most of us because it's essentially human,” said McQueen. “By uniting your suffering with Christ, which is a very noble thing, there is a way to — it doesn't take away, it doesn't pretend that the reality will disappear — deal with reality and return to a more positive end.”

While noting that the religious and spiritual aspects of suffering are an important topic at any point of the year, McQueen said the timing of the webinar was purposeful to help attendees prepare their hearts and minds to commemorate the Suffering Servant’s ultimate sacrifice.

In John 16:33, Jesus Christ offered His disciples comfort over the trials they would all face. He said: “In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

Lewis said he reads the New Testament every night. While not directly commenting on suffering, the story of Jesus calming the fierce storm in Mark 4 has provided solace.

“That message is so deep because He said to me when I was at the worst of it — and it was pretty bad, I don't know how to describe it but horrible pain — ‘just breathe, okay? It's calmed down. It's going to be okay. You can handle this.’ ”

To register for the webinar, email bioethics.usmc@utoronto.ca.