I was listening recently to podcast interviews of the retired Navy Seal, ultra- runner David Goggins. He was describing what he believed it takes to be a success as a human being. For him it is through a rigorous daily routine of exercise.
Listening to him is like reading one of the ancient pagan philosophers. He has a lot of insight into the human condition. Suffering is a fact of life we cannot escape, and the only way through is through a daily embrace of that suffering head on. If you know his story, he is living proof of that.
But his message still comes across pagan, as lacking a supernatural dimension in his tone. Though he believes in God, God seems a distant subject when he talks.
This is why I then started listening to biographies of saints who extraordinarily embraced suffering. And I would challenge the likes of David Goggins to study their lives for wisdom. There is an excellent film on YouTube about Blessed Alexandrinia. She persevered for over thirty years in intense pain paralyzed and bedridden. She couldn’t exercise much less run like Goggins. But she didn’t give up, lose her mind, or stop living her life well. How would Goggins explain that, when there is little earthly success in that situation.
And there is St. Christina the Astonished. She died young, went to purgatory, was given a choice to come back to this life and do her penance here, and chose to come back, since her suffering here would be meritorious to help others be saved, whereas the souls in purgatory gain no merit, and besides she learned that the suffering in this life no matter how bad is less than in purgatory. So she came back to life during her funeral, levitating flying up to the ceiling. For the rest of her life she lived as a homeless beggar performing the most severe penances that would make Goggins blush that this person could endure far greater than even he has endured. Which is saying a lot if you know all his physical pains from his life of extreme exercise. I would challenge Goggins to ask himself how she did it? Just one example, during the winter she would go into the icy river up to her neck and stay there for days on end.
The lives of the saints are further proof of the truths of the Catholic, Christian Faith. Everyone is able to endure whatever cross they are given, no matter how bad or seemingly long in this short life, because of the miraculous grace of God.
Which brings me to St. Simeon the Stylite. I cannot think of a more severe example of penance, but at the same time evidence of how supernatural grace works. As much as I like Goggins, despite his extreme approach to exercise, St. Simeon immeasurably exceeds anything Goggins has done.
It could be a challenge for the super-achievers of this world to also challenge themselves radically to holiness.
This saint literally lived on top of poles, sitting on top a platform at the top of the pole. For over thirty years. Somehow he slept, but when he was awake, it was constant prayer and discomfort.
I can’t even begin to imagine how much suffering he endured. But it was indescribably worse than anything Goggins or any other super successful person today has experienced to achieve the contemporary version of success, in terms of of self-confidence, physical fitness, or mental fitness. Not even close.
At first St. Simeon simply wanted to retreat from the world, living in a hut, but people flocked to him, so he switched to living atop a ten foot pole for three years. But people kept flocking to him so he switched to a twenty foot pole for ten years. And finally to a fifty foot pole for an unbelievable twenty more years.
Just imagine trying to be up there just for one day. The fear of falling, the physical elements, muscle cramps, having to use the restroom, etc, etc, etc. There was no restroom on his 3 foot by 3 foot platform.
But he did it. The fact he did it is a testament to God, to miracles (it had to have been in part miraculous), and that every human being, no matter the cross God gives them, as penance for sins, it must be carried, and CAN be carried until the very end.
St. Simeon the Stylite, pray for us.