On the 7th of January each year the Church celebrates St Charles of Sezze. Charles was born in the Italian village of Sezze in 1613. At the age of twenty-two Charles became a lay friar of the Franciscan Order, against the wishes of his family. Under obedience Charles undertook to write down his thoughts on prayer and the spiritual life and he produced several books.
He lacked an academic background, but he had a flair for writing and – again under obedience –he produced his autobiography. In his autobiography Charles is very candid and relates his mistakes, misfortunes, misunderstandings as well as his moments of spiritual insight. His attempts to join the Franciscans were almost comic and demonstrate Charles’ persevering spirit.
What stands out, perhaps, is the role of suffering in his life. Like many people Charles had periods of severe illness and sometimes he was close to death. He lost family members and close friends, and he was based in towns ravaged by plague. He was at times harshly treated by superiors and the friars in community sometimes poked fun in a way that hurt Charles’ pride.
Somehow, through it all, Charles kept his balance, and he came to see that God works through the suffering and the sorrow of life as much as through the times of insight and consolation. Charles’ story teaches us to accept suffering in our lives and not always to flee from it.
This is a difficult question; there are certainly sufferings and injustices which must be opposed, not accepted. And Charles is surely not advocating a masochistic embrace of suffering; there is no value in being attached to suffering for its own sake. Rather, as a man with great spiritual depth, Charles recognised that into every life some suffering and loss must come.
In consenting to suffering, rather than always fleeing or resisting suffering, we can learn the science of the Cross and grow closer to God.
There is a great mystery associated with suffering. We naturally try to avoid it and sometimes in avoiding it, we only increase our suffering. Or some people may look for suffering, almost as an identity, a kind of righteousness.
The saints consent to suffering in love and in so doing they see that God can transform it. The writer Etty Hillesum puts it this way: “I now realise, God, how much you have given me. So much that was beautiful and so much that was hard to bear. Yet whenever I showed myself ready to bear it, the hard was directly transformed into the beautiful”. Saint Francis, in his Testament, speaks of how his relationship with lepers was transformed from bitterness to sweetness and he identified his encounter with lepers as the foundation of his converted life.
When I read the life of St Charles, I am struck by the hardships and sufferings he endured. But more than that, I am struck by light which continued to shine through his life – indeed the light grew stronger – whenever he accepted the cross into his life.
Christians are called to walk a tightrope; neither searching for sufferings or trying to be admired as the victim, nor forever fleeing suffering and living in ease. The Christian accepts that into each life some suffering must come; if we can consent to it, it may bring us a grace we could not receive in any other way.
