Stephen Colbert, Joe Biden, and Responding to Suffering

Last updated on: August 17, 2016 at 10:29 am by David Russell Mosley

Stephen Colbert, Joe Biden, and Responding to Suffering 2016-08-17T10:29:08-04:00 David Russell Mosley

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David Russell Mosley

Edwyn during chemotherapy. Photo by my wife.

Ordinary Time

Feast of the Holy Cross

The Edge of Elfland

Hudson, New Hampshire

Dear Friends and Family,

I had planned to write this letter before I realised today was the feast of the Holy Cross. I feel strange using a term like providential when it comes to writing this letter on a blog that is really of no great, or even medium, consequence. Still, it is at the very least fitting and so I will praise God for the fittingness of today’s topic and today’s feast day.

While I was never a strong devotee of either, I have been a fan of comedian Stephen Colbert since his days on The Daily Show and later The Colbert Report. Despite, and sometimes because, of the persona he put on, Colbert has had a way of getting to the heart of the matter with his interviewees that I have greatly appreciated. Add to this Colbert’s love of Tolkien and his faith and while I may not always agree with him, I have a profound respect for him. So I was happy to hear that he would be taking over The Late Show since it would mean the real Colbert, to an extent anyway, finally coming out and I have not been disappointed. Colbert has recently spoken twice on the subject of suffering and it is to this subject I wish to turn.

In an interview given to GQ magazine almost a month ago, Colbert and the interviewer come to the story of greatest tragedy in Colbert’s life to date, the death of his father and brothers. Colbert says of this incident that “‘I love the thing that I most wish had not happened.’” When asked to follow this up, Colbert responds, with tears in his eyes, with a quotation from a letter written by J. R. R. Tolkien, “What punishments of God are not gifts?” Colbert is living out the reality of Romans 8.28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God is not always the direct source of suffering in our lives, but he turns them to good, just as he turned the most seemingly evil moment in human existence, the death of Christ, into Good Friday because Christ rose again on Easter Sunday. We too can say of that moment that we love the thing we wish most had not happened.

So, imagine my surprise, after having been made aware of this interview, that a few episodes into his run as host of The Late Show Colbert would go on to interview Vice President Joe Biden. Now, there’s a good chance many of my readers may not be fans of Joe Biden’s politics and I’m not asking that we separate out politics from faith. But I am asking that we listen to the man’s heart.

*Update The first half of the interview has since been made private.*

Colbert asks Biden about the suffering he has endured first in the death of his first wife and daughter and then in the death of his son, Beau. Note the two, or possibly three, things Joe said he relied on. First was the support of his family, particularly it would seem in the context of his Roman Catholic faith (Colbert asked him how his faith helped him through these tragedies). After family came the rituals of his faith, the Mass, the Rosary, those rituals we can go through regardless of how we feel at a given moment. Biden even notes that his faith at times left him. All that would be left were the rituals, and these were aids in returning him to faith. Now Biden next mentions the theology of his faith. I don’t think this is actually separable from the rituals of his faith for the liturgy informs the theology as much as the theology informs this liturgy (this is true of lower churches as well as higher churches, though not always to their benefit).

I too have gone through some suffering. I have not had to experience the death of a loved one, not yet (both of my grandparents on my mother’s side have passed but I was too young to be much effected by one and the other was in many ways a blessing to cause too much suffering). However, as many of you know, one my twin sons was diagnosed with cancer when he was 8 weeks old. The cancer is now gone and has been for nearly a year. I bring it up, however, to note that like Vice President Biden I found solace in the rituals and theology of my faith. And like Colbert I have already begun to see some ways that God is turning this moment of suffering into joy. You can view an interview my wife and I gave on this subject here along with an interview with another member of our church who has seen even greater suffering than we have: On the Grow: Suffering. (Our interview begins at about the 5’33” mark).

Here’s the truth I’ve learned from all of this. There are times when we will suffer, it’s part of being human in a fallen cosmos as well as part of being a Christian. We can survive this suffering, however, when we take solace in our faith, remembering that Christ suffered and died to defeat all death and suffering. We can take solace in the rituals of our faith when our belief is fleeting. But most of all, we must so align ourselves with God’s will that we can have joy in those moments we truly wish had never happened. I wish my son had never had cancer, but I can love that it happened for the ways it has grown the faith of my family, my own faith, and how it may touch the lives of others in ways I cannot conceive and will never know. To be clear, this isn’t an argument for why there is suffering in this world. I’m not terribly interested in theodicies. Rather, this is simply how I think Christians are meant to respond to suffering and how God responds to our suffering. I hope those of you who are suffering now or have suffered can take some solace in that.

Yours,
David

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