PEOPLE have always struggled with suffering. It ranges from the suffering of the teenager trying to gain acceptance from his peers, to the suffering in a broken marriage, the suffering of someone who has lost a job or never managed to get one, the suffering of someone whose closest friend has died, or of those who are affected by HIV and AIDS.

There is also the suffering of the man or woman who is told "you have cancer", the suffering of the manic depressive and the suffering of meaninglessness. And so on. We all suffer and we all know people who suffer. It is always hard to know what, if anything, to say. Sometimes, the best answer seems to be respectful silence.

One "solution" in the past was to say "it's God's will". But that can resign us to a passive acceptance of suffering, an attitude of "offer it up" - no matter what the suffering. It can give the idea that Christians are people who bear suffering... but do little to remove it.

It may even give the impression that we are somehow glorifying suffering. The other extreme is a kind of activism that would lead us to believe that all suffering can be eradicated if we just try hard enough. The first explanation hinges on a view that God is removed from the world, looking on with compassion but not really involved. In the second approach, the problem is the underlying sense that the world "should not" have suffering, which can give a false expectation that a life with no suffering is possible.

The attitudes of the Christian in the face of suffering are perhaps best expressed in the prayer that asks for grace to "accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference". This prayer avoids the above pitfalls. It avoids falling into passivity, shrugging your shoulders and saying "what's the point, what can I do?"

It avoids glorifying suffering in any way while at the same time avoiding unrealistic expectations that you can live life without suffering. And it affirms that it is, finally, my efforts to deal with suffering and my struggles with my own suffering, and that of my friends, that teach me wisdom and give me an answer at least of sorts.

"Why does God not intervene and prevent suffering? Is our God a `hands off' God, an uninvolved God?" The short answer is "No" and there are two issues here: God's respect for our freedom and God's intimate involvement in our lives. Both of these elements are vital. The question "Why does God allow suffering?" is one that seems to want God to be a God who intervenes in our lives when it suits us.

Focusing on God's involvement pushes us to ask a different question: "Where is God in the suffering and how is God involved?"

In Dunblane, for example, one way God is involved is in the efforts of people to help each other, to console each other, to minister to each other and in countless other ways. And similarly in other situations of suffering. One thing is sure: God is involved. God does care, God is reaching out. And a significant way God shows this care is through us.

So, when we pray for someone who is sick we are inviting God into the situation; our freedom is linking with God's desire to help and to heal. And when we go to help someone who is injured we are God's hands and heart and eyes and ears. In these situations, we are freely choosing to be God's compassionate presence in the world and God is at work through that free choice.

This week will see Stations of the Cross and processions in most churches in Ireland. A central truth proclaimed by the Cross concerns God's involvement with us. The Cross speaks of a God who loves us so much that He is willing to die to show that love. The Cross says: "God is with you in your suffering. God understands your pain."

Small comfort to someone who wants the pain taken away, you might say. But great consolation when the reality of this, companioning of us by God is known and experienced and savoured, when we move from seeing the figure of Jesus on the Cross as something "outside" ourselves, to knowing "inside" ourselves the love that this expresses and the understanding of our situation that this represents.

It is important, too, to realise the Cross is a radical protest against suffering. It stands as a reminder in every suffering perpetrated on one by another that this should not be. The Cross was not something the Father wanted or "demanded". The Cross came as a consequence of Jesus living the truth in love, it was. a consequence of a life lived in love. The Cross also reminds us, in our lives, that as a consequence of living a good way, the just man or woman will be misunderstood and will suffer. The reality is that the Cross will be there for anyone who tries to love in a sinful suffering world. But it is not there as something to be embraced in itself.

In the end, there is no one answer for suffering that we can put "out there" for all to assent to. There is no one "explanation" of evil. The truth is that each individual works out his or her own answer in the turmoil of the very personal suffering each experiences.

The Good News of the Cross and Resurrection and of the whole life of Jesus, the contribution of Christianity to the problem of suffering, is that we need not work out that answer alone. The Jesus of Nazareth and Galilee, the Jesus of the Cross and Resurrection is with us, responding to our longing for meaning, our longing to be loved and understood. The God who respects our freedom totally and who waits patiently for us to call on him, this God, this Christ ... plays in ten thousand places" (Hopkins) and not least in the depths of ourselves - wherever people suffer and are broken and wherever people reach out to help someone in need.