The Boss consults Q his spiritual director once more

The Boss consults his spiritual director Q once again

-                      Hi Q.

-                      His Boss, what’s happening?

-                      Well, a very good friend of mine is very ill in hospital and it raises all sorts of faith issues for me. (Q nods)… If I can have an explanation-

-                      Of suffering?

-                      Yes, of suffering…. If I can have an explanation that makes sense to me that would be a real comfort. I don’t want glib stuff about karma or God’s will – I can’t fight God in any case though I do get angry with her or him….. But I want to know why horrid illnesses exist and why good people suffer them and what we are supposed to do learn – enlightenment in the suffering? It seems like the impact of other people’s suffering is both making me more tender about human life and planet earth but also distancing me from putting my trust in my life continuing. It’s saying ‘Wow! All you have is now. Nothing more is guaranteed. Sooner or later you will die – possibly after (what will seem like) endless pain and suffering.

-                      Oh.

-                      Yes, oh!

-                      I have no answer to that.

-                      Gee thanks!

-                      But…

-                      But?

-                      But life is all about love and loss… Don’t fight it …. Feel it … move on….

-                      That’s all very well.

-                      I know.

-                      Well then… It’s like I am being asked to change how I am in relation to existence and it feels like trauma or the eye of a needle and as sure as hell I am a fat camel* (They both laugh.)

-                      Don’t fight it…breath and accept it.

-                      Oh Christ!.... Sorry Q for the blasphemy.

-                      Didn’t seem like blasphemy to me.

The Boss nods.

-                      Well it now feels like the Serenity prayer -  God grant me the serenity/To accept the things I cannot change/Courage to change the things I can;/And wisdom to know the difference. And sure as hell I can’t do much about suffering; some of it is inevitable. But that wont stop me loving people in my life!

Q smiles – that’s it!

*Jesus said somewhere in the New Testament that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. But apparently the Eye of the Needle was a narrow gateway in Jerusalem that a camel could squeeze through.