When we were in prison, we were asking each other : `Why this suffering, why we ? From the millions of Romanians, why had they chosen us to suffer? What is the meaning? And God did not reveal anything to us from His intentions. We were crying every day to God to give us less pain and it seemed that He burdened us with much more of it.
After I was released from prison, I carried inside me this sign of suffering which seemed to have marked my whole life.
After the second prison I left for the West. I traveled through all the countries from Europe, America and I spoke about what had happened in Romania. In this journey I came to a monastery and I slept into a library. There among many books I found a small book with Christian reflections, with apophthegms. I opened at random at a page where I saw a reflection by Paul Claudel. It said as follows: `God did not come into the world to put an end to suffering. He did not come into the world to explain that either. God came into the world to fill the human suffering by His presence. Did you hear that? To fill the human suffering of His presence!
Then I understood that in the moments when we had cried or when we had revolted or when we had cried: God, what are You doing with us? He was in us much more than in all the others, despite all our sins, despite all our weaknesses. He filled our suffering by His presence.
Then I understood exactly the deep meaning of this suffering.
Priest Gheorghe Calciu
