By Henrylito D. Tacio

Senator Juan M. Flavier is known for his parables. Here’s one of those which I consider my favorite:

The farmer had a series of misfortunes in fairly close succession. He was utterly dejected and filled with self-pity. He truly felt like it was the end of the world for he could no longer bear the heaviness in his heart and mind.

It started with the loss of his work animal - one of the best carabaos in the village and the envy of many other farmers. The cattle rustlers even added insult to injury. For the animal was never sold as prime beast for farming. Instead it was ruthlessly and recklessly butchered. But the thieves only got the thighs. The body was left to decay and was eventually found due to the foul smell – a fate more befitting useless and sick carabao.

This caused the farmer’s yield in his race farm to dwindle drastically as he had to make do by borrowing carabao from other farmers. To top it off, a bad drought completely wiped out his already meager crop.

At midyear, his only son was caught in possession of prohibited drugs. The boy was also confirmed to be a drug dependent. His daughter then eloped with the son of his arch-enemy. “Anyone else except that family,” he moaned to himself. And as if to inflict the
unkindest cut of all, his wife ran away with the town policeman.

The farmer knelt in quite desperation and prayed in his small hut. “Lord, I have had it. I cannot take it anymore. This is just too much for me. I can no longer carry the cross.”

A blinding light blazed upon the farmer as a kindly voice boomed: “I understand how you feel, my son. If you cannot bear your cross anymore, then come enter the room of crosses. Leave your cross and select one whose weigh you feel you can bear.”

Immediately, the farmer saw a door open before him. He dutifully entered the brightly lit room and left his cross by the door. He saw before him all sorts of bulky crosses – all much larger and heavier than his.

There was even bloodied cross which towered so high he could not discern its top. There were crosses made of narra, yakal, and even solid iron. One after another, he tried but could barely lift the crosses.

Finally, he saw a small cross which appeared manageable. He heaved it upon his shoulders where it rested comfortably. “Lord, I like this one,” the farmer announced.

The Lord replied, “My son, that is the very same cross you brought in. Take it and go in peace.”

Sometimes, we thought our sufferings are too much to bear. Unknowingly, compared with others, ours may be miniscule. Italian poet, novelist, and translator Cesare Pavese once pointed out: “Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible; no one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time -- is the same thing as time; if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next.”

Remember what Jesus said before? “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-34). “No cross, no crown,” William Penn explained.

Spanish philosophical writer Miguel De Unamuno has the same opinion: “There is no true love saves in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is suffering, or happiness. Man is the more man -- that is, the more divine -- the greater his capacity for suffering, or rather, for anguish.”

“You know quite well, deep within you, that there is only a single magic, a single power, a single salvation...and that is called loving,” Hermann Hesse once said. “Well, then, love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. It is your aversion that hurts – nothing else.

Fritz Williams has this idea: “Suffering and joy teach us, if we allow them, how to make the leap of empathy, which transports us into the soul and heart of another person. In those transparent moments we know other people's joys and sorrows, and we care about their concerns as if they were our own.”

Paulo Coelho shares this thought: “But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.”

“Suffering is a misfortune, as viewed from the one side, and as a discipline as viewed from the other,”
Samuel Smiles notes. Adds Mary Lyon, “Nine-tenths of our suffering is caused by others not thinking so much of us as we think they ought.”

Now, let me end this piece with this anecdote. A man was coming out of his field along the back roads of a remote area. Just as he pulled out on the road, a city slicker came speeding over a hilltop and hit his rig. The man is lying there pinned under his car, his dog not far away, and his goat across the road in the other ditch.

About that time, a car pulled up and the man thought, “Thank God, someone is going to help me.” When he saw that it was a policeman, he was even more relieved.
The policeman looked over the situation at a glance.

Seeing the goat had a broken leg and suffering, he pulled out his gun and shot it to end its misery. He walked across the road and saw the dog was just as bad off, so he shot him to end his misery.

Then he walked back over to the man and asked if he was in pain. “Never felt better in my life!” the man replied.

Have you ever had a chance of “feeling better” even in the midst of your worst crisis ever? Christian Morgenstern stated, “Suffer and bear. Better days will come. Everything must serve those who stand firm. Heart, old child, suffer and bear.”

For comments, write me at tasyo2002@yahoo.com.