The Roots of Sorrow by Phil C. Zylla

Author:Phil C. Zylla [Zylla, Phil C.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781602587700
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: 2012-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

From Loneliness to Community

To suffer alone is to bear an infinite agony. The vast chasm that separates the suffering person from a sense of belonging can be described as the inner experience of loneliness. There is, in all suffering, a deep-seated occurrence of cut-off-ness. The afflicted person feels alienated and dislocated in the world. This experience is not simply another aspect of suffering but rather the troubling sense of being cast off. Desolation of belonging is intrinsic to the experience of suffering. Those who feel abandoned are trapped by a hidden desertion. In this chapter we will explore the nature of this loneliness that is at the root of the experience of suffering. This dark cavern of aloneness hinders the sufferer from any sense of being acknowledged, seen, or understood.

There is in this third movement from loneliness to community a deeper reflection of the absolute darkness that often accompanies the experience of suffering. Being alone in one’s affliction is another way to describe the hidden dimension of suffering as loneliness. In this way, all suffering is inaccessible to others. We suffer in a way that cannot be articulated or described with any accuracy. This remote place of isolation is painful to bear and makes loneliness the suffering in suffering.1 In this chapter we will explore the movement from loneliness to community, which is the next movement in our paradigm for a theology of suffering.

Loneliness

The Suffering in Suffering

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